Nili Fossae Trough

Access Mars allows any member of the public to explore the discoveries of NASA's Curiosity rover.

An etched version of Leonardo da Vinci's self-portrait on the Microchip to be placed aboard NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover.

This view of "Vera Rubin Ridge" from the ChemCam instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows sedimentary layers, mineral veins and effects of wind erosion. ChemCam's telescopic Remote Micro-Ima...

The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station will monitor atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind currents, and ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/INTA (Instituto Naciona...

After two Martian years, Curiosity is more than a Mars geologist, scientist and explorer. It's a Mars weather reporter, too.

This artist's concept shows how the cruise stage de-spins outside the martian atmosphere, turns to entry position, suffers peak heating just after entry, then peak deceleration, before deploying a ...

This panorama is a mosaic of images taken by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on the NASA Mars rover Curiosity during the 106th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Nov. 22, 2012).

This full-resolution image shows part of the deck of NASA's Curiosity rover taken from one of the rover's Navigation cameras looking toward the back left of the rover.

Curiosity performs a series of firsts this week -- flexing its arm, laser-zapping a rock and rolling on its wheels.

This view shows grains of sand where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover was driven into a shallow sand sheet near a large dune. The scene covers an area 1.3 inches wide, imaged by Curiosity's Mars Hand Le...

This color-enhanced view shows the terrain around the rover's landing site within Gale Crater on Mars.

This 360-degree panorama from the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the rugged surface of 'Naukluft Plateau' plus upper Mount Sharp at right and part of the rim of Gale Crater. The April...

The leader of the entry, descent and landing team of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project, Adam Steltzner of JPL (left), accepts the 2013 Trophy for Current Achievement from the Smithsonian Natio...

At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians, using an overhead crane, separate the two components of the aeroshell, an element of NASA's Mars ...

This graphic offers comparisons between the amount of an organic chemical named chlorobenzene detected in the "Cumberland" rock sample and amounts of the same compound in samples from three other M...

This set of images compares the Link outcrop of rocks on Mars (left) with similar rocks seen on Earth (right).

This image shows inclined beds characteristic of delta deposits where a stream entered a lake, but at a higher elevation and farther south than other delta deposits north of Mount Sharp. This sugge...

A screen view from OnSight, a software tool developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in collaboration with Microsoft. OnSight uses real rover data to create a 3-D simulation of the Martian en...

Engineers and technicians have been planning for months and working for weeks on the big move for NASA's Mars Curiosity rover.

A rippled linear dune of dark Martian sand, "Nathan Bridges Dune," dominates this full-circle panorama from the Mastcam of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. This dune was one research stop of the missio...

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).

Goal 2: Characterize the climate of Mars

The Atlas V payload fairing containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft rises above the floor of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This image shows two engineers aiming the cannon that will fire the tightly packed parachute into the wind tunnel.

This image shows the body of the Mars Science Laboratory rover inside a clean room, supported by its six huge wheels and suspension system. Specially fitted platforms underneath the wheels hold the...