NASA Curiosity Embarks On Solo Trip Using 'Autonav' Capabilities; Space Agency Releases New Images of Mars Taken By Rover (PHOTOS)

For the first time, NASA's Curiosity will use the rover's new autonomous navigation system to embark on a trip to Mars by itself. 

Curiostity will use the "autonav" system to obtain and analyze images during its travel to calculate a "safe" course of travel. 

"Curiosity takes several sets of stereo pairs of images, and the rover's computer processes that information to map any geometric hazard or rough terrain," Mark Maimone, rover mobility engineer and rover driver at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said in a news release.  "The rover considers all the paths it could take to get to the designated endpoint for the drive and chooses the best one."

NASA reports on Aug. 27, the rover was able to successfully use its newest capability during testing on the ground, and it was confirmed safe to advance.  Curiosity drove about 33 feet using the autonav during the test run on Tuesday, a total of 141 feet of travel that day:

The drive on Tuesday, the mission's 376th Martian day, or "sol," took Curiosity across a depression where ground-surface details had not been visible from the location where the previous drive ended. The drive included about 33 feet (10 meters) of autonomous navigation across hidden ground as part of a day's total drive of about 141 feet (43 meters).

"We could see the area before the dip, and we told the rover where to drive on that part. We could see the ground on the other side, where we designated a point for the rover to end the drive, but Curiosity figured out for herself how to drive the uncharted part in between," said JPL's John Wright, a rover driver.

The news comes on the heels of NASA releasing Curiosity's sharpest images ever taken of Mars (image: "triple moon-like" photo shown in slide show).  Check out more images captured by the rover in the slide show above.  You can also see more photos and explanations of the images here.