Scarecrow Rover Wheel Closeup

Lozenge-shaped crystals are evident in this magnified view of a Martian rock target called "Mojave," taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument on the arm of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.

Sensors on two finger-like mini-booms extending horizontally from the mast of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will monitor wind speed, wind direction and air temperature.

The Curiosity rover’s Entry, Descent and Landing team (EDL) arrives at the post-landing press conference to cheers and celebration.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover caught its own shadow in this image taken just after completing a drive of 329 feet (100.3 meters) on the 547th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Feb. 18...

Goddard scientist Jennifer Eigenbrode injected a chemical into a rock sample and then heated the test tube to determine whether the sample-preparation method preserved the sample's molecular struct...

Between 2006 and 2011, engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., conducted a series of aerial tests on the radar that will be used to land NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars....

In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sections of an Atlas V rocket payload fairing obscure NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) from view as they c...

Curiosity remains busy on Mars by checking out her instruments and getting ready for her first test drive.

Satellite news trucks crowd the parking lots at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., on Aug. 5, 2012, in preparation for the Curiosity rover’s landing on Mars.

This image maps the traverse of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity from "Bradbury Landing" to "Yellowknife Bay," with an inset documenting a change in the ground's thermal properties with arrival at a dif...

Out of more than 30 sites considered as possible landing targets for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, by November 2008 four of the most intriguing places on Mars rose to the final round of t...

The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover includes temperature and humidity sensors mounted on the rover's mast. One of the REMS booms extends to the left fro...

This image of an outcrop at the "Sheepbed" locality, taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover with its right Mast Camera (Mastcam), shows well-defined veins filled with whitish minerals, interpreted as...

At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, integration between a rocket-powered descent stage and NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, known as Cu...

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) is a powerful set of three instruments onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover that work together to investigate the chemistry of the Martian sur...

This series of images reconstructs the geology of the region around Mars' Mount Sharp, where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover landed and is now driving. The images, taken on Earth, have been altered for...

This patch of Martian bedrock, about 2 feet (70 centimeters) across, is finely layered rock with some pea-size inclusions. It lies near the lowest point of the "Pahrump Hills" outcrop, which forms ...

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

As of June 2012, the target landing area for Curiosity, the rover inside NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, is the ellipse marked in black on this image.

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

The penny in this image is part of a camera calibration target on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.

Mars is experiencing large regional dust storms over its northern hemisphere during the past week.

NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, stretches its robotic arm upward during Sept. 3, 2010, tests on a tilt table in a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labotatory, Pasadena, Calif. Test operators ...

After more than a year without the use of the Curiosity Mars rover's drill, engineers have devised a workaround and tested it for the first time on the Red Planet.

The sensor head on the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer instrument was installed during testing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The instrument is part of the Curiosity rover, which will fly o...