Dunes Obstacle Course

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 image shows a close-up of track marks from the first test drive of NASA's Curiosity rover. The rover's arm is visible in the foreground.

The network of cracks in this Martian rock slab called "Old Soaker" may have formed from the drying of a mud layer more than 3 billion years ago. The view spans about 3 feet (90 centimeters) left-t...

This panorama, made up of 122 individual images stitched together, was taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Nov. 18, 2020, the 2,946th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. 

Preparations are under way to enclose NASA's Mars Science Laboratory in an Atlas V rocket payload fairing in this photograph from inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy S...

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover measures the concentration of methane in the atmosphere at Gale Crater. A one-time spike in methane, up to about 7 parts per billion occurred during Curiosity's first Ma...

This is a still from an interactive web feature that guides you through the entry, descent and landing of NASA's Curiosity rover.

The sequence of seven images in this animation shows sunspots as viewed by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from June 27 to July 8, 2015. From Mars, the rover was in position to see the opposite side of...

This mosaic of images from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows a series of sedimentary deposits in the Glenelg area of Gale Crater, from a perspective in Yello...

Southern Meridiani

The hole that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover drilled into target rock "John Klein" provided a view into the interior of the rock, as well as obtaining a sample of powdered material from the rock.

This composite image looking toward the higher regions of Mount Sharp was taken on September 9, 2015, by NASA's Curiosity rover.

The Mars Hand Lens Imager will provide close-up views of microbial-size features. Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS

The pale rocks in the foreground of this fisheye image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover include the "Bonanza King" target under consideration to become the fourth rock drilled by the Mars Science L...

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) ...

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...

The left eye of the two-camera Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took the images combined into this mosaic of the rover's upper deck.

This wide panorama was taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Dec. 19, 2019, the 2,620th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. On the righthand foreground is Western Butte; the ridge with a crusty ...

A separate electronics box will allow the Mastcam to process images independently of the main rover computer system. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

An engineering model for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory makes its way up a hill in the Mars Yard testing area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The stick-shaped features on this Martian rock are about the size of grains of rice. This view from the MAHLI camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover covers an area about 2 inches across, on a target...

The first stage of the Atlas V rocket for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission arrives at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

This scene shows the surroundings of the location where NASA Mars rover Curiosity arrived on the 29th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 4, 2012).

The "keys" to NASA's Mars rovers are in the capable hands of the official rover drivers. Learn how they operate the vehicles from millions of miles away in this 60-second video from NASA's Jet Prop...

The rippled surface of the first Martian sand dune ever studied up close fills this Nov. 27, 2015, view of "High Dune" from the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover. This site is part of the "Bagn...