Replicating Martian Dunes

This image from Curiosity's Mast Camera shows NASA's Curiosity rover just after discarding a soil sample as part of its first "decontamination" exercise.

Designed to be about the size of a laptop computer inside a carrying case, the Chemistry and Mineralogy Instrument will identify and measure the abundances of minerals on Mars. A rotating wheel in ...

The mesa in the center of this scene from the "Murray Buttes" area on Mars is longer than a football field. The panorama combines images taken by the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Aug. ...

This image from the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an impact scar on Mars made by pieces of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft that the spacecraft shed just before entering the Mar...

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

This animation shows the approximate true position of NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. A 3-D virtual model of Curiosity is shown inside Gale Crater, near Mount Sharp, Curiosity's ultimate destinatio...

A selfie taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Sol 2291 (January 15) at the "Rock Hall" drill site, located on Vera Rubin Ridge.

This view southeastward from Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) shows terrain judged difficult for traversing between the rover and an outcrop in the middle distance where a pale rock unit meets a d...

This sequence of images shows a blast zone where the sky crane from NASA's Curiosity rover mission hit the ground after setting the rover down in August 2012, and how that dark scar's appearance ch...

The rover took a 360-degree panorama of the area depicting its last drill hole on the ridge (at a location called "Rock Hall").

This view from Curiosity shows a dramatic hillside outcrop with sandstone layers that scientists refer to as "cross-bedding."

This mosaic from the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover shows the view looking toward the "Glenelg" area, where three different terrain types come together.

An engineer says goodbye to the Curiosity rover and its powered descent vehicle in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Spacecraft Assembly Facility shortly before the spacecraft was readied for shipmen...

This view from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover was taken the day before the rover's final approach drive to "the Kimberley" waypoint, selected months ago as the location for the mission's next major in...

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 patch of bedrock, called "Cumberland," has been selected as the second target for drilling by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.

Seasons change even on Mars and NASA's fleet of explorers are helping scientists learn more about the effects on the Red Planet.

This video, presented at four times actual speed, shows a test using an engineering model of the soil scoop for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The scoop dips to about 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters) dee...

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

A group watching motions of an engineering model of the camera mast for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on March 5, 2010, includes moviemaker James Cameron (right).

Curiosity gets new software and new capabilities for the long trek to Mt. Sharp.

Two parallel tracks left by the wheels of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover cross rugged ground in this portion of a Dec. 11, 2013, observation by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) ...

In this image, two technicians from the Mars Science Laboratory team prepare the rover's mobility system for instrumentation tests. They are both wearing white coats and gloves as they each work on...

This collage shows the variety of soils found at landing sites on Mars.

This map shows where NASA's Mars rover Curiosity landed in August 2012 at "Bradbury Landing"; the area where the rover worked from November 2012 through May 2013 at and near the "John Klein" target...