Planum Boreum crater

This false-color map shows the area within Gale Crater on Mars, where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Aug. 5, 2012 PDT (Aug. 6, 2012 EDT).

These three views of the Martian moon Phobos were taken by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter using its infrared camera, THEMIS. Each color represents a different temperature range.

Mars Odyssey Project Manager Gaylon McSmith, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Women working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory pose for a photo in mission control in honor of Women in Science Day.

Buzz Aldrin, an Apollo 11 astronaut who walked on the moon, makes a holographic appearance in 'Destination: Mars,' a mixed-reality tour of a part of Mars that NASA's Curiosity rover has explored.

Researchers estimating the amount of carbon held in the ground at the largest known carbonate-containing deposit on Mars utilized data from three different NASA Mars orbiters.

This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the margin of the north polar cap and the surrounding plains. The layering of the ice is easily visible due to the dust that is dep...

This computer-generated view based on multiple orbital observations shows Mars' Gale crater as if seen from an aircraft north of the crater.

This artist's animation shows how NASA's Curiosity rover will communicate with Earth via two of NASA's Mars orbiters, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey. As the rover descends to the surface o...

Dr. Phil Varghese, Odyssey Project Manager.

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

Newly detailed mapping of local variations in Mars' gravitational pull on orbiters (center), combined with topographical mapping of the planet's mountains and valleys (left), yields the best-yet ma...

NASA's NEOWISE mission detected comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring on July 28, 2014, less than three months before this comet's close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19. This merging of multiple images presents t...

At 11:02 a.m. EDT on April 7, 2001, crowds watch a Boeing Delta II rocket lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, carrying NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft into space on its sev...

As fractures opened near the summit of Tyrrhena Patera, the ground collapsed to make pits and chains of pits aligned with the fractures. The large pit seen here is about 400 m (1,300 ft) deep.

West of Valles Marineris lies a checkerboard named Noctis Labyrinthus, which formed when the Martian crust stretched and fractured.

Getting to Mars is difficult enough -- staying there is even more challenging. Odyssey met up with Mars on October 24 02:26 UTC (October 23: 7:26 p.m. PDT/10:26 p.m.EDT).

Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars, are seen in this image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter. The distance to Deimos from Odyssey during the observation was about 12,222 miles (19,670 kilomet...

This map of Mars indicates locations of new craters that have excavated ice (blue) and those that have not (red). The underlying map is based on the brightness, or albedo, of the Martian surface.

When the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, landed on Meridiani Planum in January 2004, it quickly found what it had been sent from Earth to find: evidence of liquid water in the Martian past.

Although it is 45 kilometers (28 miles) wide, countless layers of ice and dust have all but buried Udzha Crater.

Odyssey launched on Boeing's Delta II 7925 that uses nine strap-on solid rocket motors.

NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft passes above a portion of the planet that is rotating into the sunlight in this artist's concept illustration. The spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since October ...

The artist's animation depicts how NASA's Curiosity rover will communicate with Earth during landing. As the rover descends to Mars, it will send out basic radio-frequency tones that go directly to...

Valles Marineris, the "Grand Canyon of Mars," sprawls wide enough to reach from Los Angeles to nearly New York City, if it were located on Earth. The red outline box shows the location of a second,...