Countdown Nears: Final Tests

This image, acquired on May 15, 2018, by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows relatively bright mounds scattered throughout darker and diverse surfaces in Chryse Planitia.

With the Atlantic Ocean as a backdrop, an Atlas V launch vehicle, 19 stories tall, with a two-ton Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on top, roars away from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force S...

Three pairs of before and after images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter illustrate movement of ripples on dark sand dunes in...

This observation shows erosional features on light-toned rocks in Aram Chaos, a crater near the equator of Mars that has been nearly filled with sedimentary rocks.

The HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the most powerful telescope to have left Earth orbit. HiRISE is capable of some interesting astronomical observations such as this image of J...

The Mars Color Imager test view looks northward and includes the large Argyre Basin in Mars' southern hemisphere.

This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today.

Before and after images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter illustrate occurrence of new streaks on the slip face of a dark san...

This image acquired on January 21, 2019 by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the south polar layered deposits are well illuminated to accentuate the topography.

Dunes on Floor of Samara Valles, Mars

This animation shows the position of NASA's Curiosity rover as it journeyed through "the clay-bearing unit" on Mars between May 31 and July 20, 2019. The HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance...

The colorful rocks exposed in the central peak visible in this image probably reflect variations in mineral content that were caused by water activity early in Mars' history. The CRISM hyperspectra...

This image acquired on January 20, 2019 by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows a chaotic jumble of bright layered sediments, perhaps resulting from large landslides.

Northern Hemisphere Gullies on West-Facing Crater Slope, Mars

This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today.

The total distance driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity passed the one-mile mark a few days before the first anniversary of the rover's landing on Mars.

The linearity of the volcanic vent shown in this HiRISE image, in conjunction with evidence of lava flow from the vent, suggests control by combined volcano-tectonic processes.

This image shows details of the lava covered plains near the equator of Mars. The darker looking area has a rough lava surface with all the shadows giving the region a darker appearance.

This artist's animation shows how orbiters over Mars will monitor the landing of NASA's Curiosity rover. (No audio)

This map shows where NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has driven since landing at a site subsequently named "Bradbury Landing," and traveling to an overlook position near beside "Point Lake," in drives ...

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter caught this view of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on Feb. 14, 2014.

This picture of a crater resembling a "happy face" was taken in January 2008, by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Context Camera. The unnamed crater is almost 2 miles (about 3 kilometers) across.

An oblique, northward-looking view based on stereo orbital imaging, shows the location of Opportunity on its journey from Cape York to Solander Point when HiRISE took the new color image.

This HiRISE image shows a mixture of bright and dark units. The bright units have a mineral called sulfate (salty sulfuric acid) that on Earth typically forms in the presence of water as an evapori...

The Electris region of Mars contains some interesting features, such as the raised-relief blocks of material visible in this image.