Caked in red silt, NASA's Curiosity rover looks like it's been trekking through a Martian dust storm in this latest interactive panorama. But nothing can tarnish the joy of seeing this incredible machine hard at work on another planet.

The dust-covered robot is currently preparing for its third drilling operation on Mars, at a site nicknamed the Kimberley. In recent days, engineers have inspected and scrubbed the dust from a spot on a rock they named "Windjana," after a gorge in Western Australia. (Too bad the rover can't turn its wire bristle dust removal tool on itself.) Curiosity has already done preparatory drill work and will soon sample some of Windjana's interior. The rover will run this sample through a series of tests to give scientists a better understanding of the history of water in this area.

The panorama above was stitched together from 138 images taken on Apr. 27, and stretches more than 30,000 pixels wide. The images were taken by the rover's MAHLI camera, which sits on its outstretched arm, and were put together by photographer Andrew Bodrov of Estonia, who has compiled many amazing panoramas from Curiosity in the past and even one from China's Chang’e 3 moon lander. We suggest opening the window into fullscreen mode to maximize the sensation of standing next to the rover on Mars.

Image: Andrew Bodrov