A new time-lapse video from NASA's Curiosity rover reveals years of punishing Martian travel, as its wheels churn steadily across the Red Planet's rugged terrain. A still image from a video released by NASA/JPL documenting six years of Curiosity rover's wheels while driving on Mars. (Image credit: NASA/JPL) The rover's camera wasn't intended to create a cinematic record. It typically points behind the rover during drives, helping mission teams identify interesting rocks and terrain features after Curiosity passes them. But by stitching together thousands of routine images, engineers created a continuous record of motion and environmental change, offering a rare, long-term perspective on what it takes to explore another world. Now, scientists can even use the footage to study how sand accumulates and shifts across the rover's deck, distinguishing material moved by the wheels from that carried by Martian winds — subtle clues about seasonal patterns in the planet's thin atmosphere.…