Miyamoto Crater

The heat shield for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory is the largest ever built for a planetary mission.

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 1417 Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (August, 01, 2016).

Radar Testing for Mars Science Labotatory

This screen grab shows a sample - not actual data - of the kinds of Mars weather reports we will be getting from NASA's Curiosity rover

This global image shows seven possible landing sites for MSL.

This chart shows increases in the volume of data coming back from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity over recent sols, or Martian days. The rover has the ability to talk directly to Earth, but its data ca...

This full-resolution color image from NASA's Curiosity Rover shows the gravel-covered surface of Mars. It was taken by the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) several minutes after Curiosity touched down o...

Left and right eyes of the Navigation Camera (Navcam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took the dozens of images combined into this stereo scene of the rover and its surroundings. The component image...

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.

The two donut-shaped tracks make an infinity symbol, and mark the first two drives of NASA's Curiosity rover.

This graphic shows the variation of radiation dose measured by the Radiation Assessment Detector on NASA's Curiosity rover over about 50 sols, or Martian days, on Mars.

Scarecrow is a full-scale version of Curiosity, but without the “brains.” Engineers use it to test drive on different types of terrain. In this image, the rover was taken out to the Dumont Dunes in...

NASA's Curiosity drills for first sample from inside a rock on Mars.

Since landing on Mars in August 2012, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has fired the laser on its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument more than 100,000 times at rock and soil targets up to about 2...

An in-flight camera check on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft turned on illumination sources that are part of the Curiosity rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument.

This scene combines images taken by the left-eye camera of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover during the midafternoon, local Mars solar time, of the mission's 526th...

This view of a Martian rock called "Rocknest 3" combines four images taken by the right-eye camera of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument, which has a telephoto, 100-millimeter-focal-length lens.

Curiosity monitors radiation and spots elusive whirlwinds on Mars.

A mineral vein with bright and dark portions dominates this image of a Martian rock target called "Rona," which is near the southern, upper edge of "Vera Rubin Ridge" on Mount Sharp.

This graph shows the percentage abundance of five gases in the atmosphere of Mars, as measured by the Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer instrument of the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite on NASA...

This photograph of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, was taken during mobility testing on June 3, 2011. The location is inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propul...

This close-up view shows the rover Curiosity's parachute and back shell strewn across the surface of Mars.

This view captures Curiosity's current work area where the rover continues its campaign to study an active sand dune on Mars.

Download a PDF of Curiosity's Brochure.

​NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered ancient organic molecules on Mars, embedded within sedimentary rocks that are billions of years old.