Earlier this week, SpaceX said it plans to land on Mars by 2018. But if you don't want to wait until then to get a better look at the planet's surface, you don't have to.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has nearly finished crossing a stretch of some of the most rugged and difficult-to-navigate terrain encountered during the mission's 44 months on Mars.

The rover climbed onto the Naukluft Plateau of lower Mount Sharp in early March after spending several weeks investigating sand dunes. The plateau's sandstone bedrock has been carved by eons of wind erosion into ridges and knobs, NASA said.

The path of about a quarter-mile (400 meters) westward across it is taking Curiosity toward smoother surfaces.

While on the Naukluft Plateau, the rover's Mast Camera recorded some panoramic scenes from the highest viewpoints Curiosity has reached since its August 2012 landing on the floor of Gale Crater on Mars.

The scenes show wind-sculpted textures in the sandstone bedrock close to the rover, and Gale Crater's rim rising above the crater floor in the distance. Mount Sharp stands in the middle of the crater which is about 96 miles in diameter.