Scarecrow Rover Desert Tests

This image shows the topography, with shading added, around the area where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT).

This animation depicts NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drilling a hole to collect a rock-powder sample at a target site called "John Klein." (No audio)

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Navigation Camera (Navcam) to record this stereo scene of a butte called "Mount Remarkable" and surrounding outcrops at a waypoint called "the Kimberley" inside...

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission will study chemistry of rocks, soil and air as the mission's rover, Curiosity, investigates Gale Crater on Mars.

NASA engineers take the Curiosity test rover to California's Mojave desert to learn how to drive on Martian sand dunes.

No bones about it! Seen by Mars rover Curiosity using its MastCam, this Mars rock may look like a femur thigh bone. Mission science team members think its shape is likely sculpted by erosion, eithe...

The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover fired its laser 50 times at its onboard graphite target during the 27th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars...

The sparks that appear on the baseball-sized rock result from the laser of the ChemCam instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover hitting the rock. (No audio)

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the exposures combined into this stereo view of a wee crater, informally named "Skylab," along the rover's route. The co...

A swept Martian rock called "Bonanza King" can be seen in this image take by NASA's Mars Curiosity rover.

Teachers gather at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., for the Curiosity Landing Educator Workshop.

This view of terrestrial rocks was taken by a testing twin -- the "life test unit" -- of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory.

This set of images from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the inlet covers for the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument opening and closing, as the rover continues to check out its instruments in the firs...

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity appears as a bluish dot near the lower right corner of this enhanced-color view from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on...

This image, taken with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, shows distinct bands of alternating tone and brightness within the "Murray Formation" on Mars.

The gray area in the center of this image is where the Dust Removal Tool on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity brushed a rock target called "Wernecke."

Clara Ma, winner of the contest to name NASA's Curiosity rover, in 2009 with an engineering model of the rover (left) and as a graduate student in 2019 (right)

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 ...

This 3D view of the calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was assembled from two images taken by that camera during the 34th Martian day, or so...

This image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the great diversity of grains found on the surface of a Martian rock.

This image shows the location of the 150-micrometer sieve screen on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, a device used to remove larger particles from samples before delivery to science instruments.

Clara Ma (in front) with Suparna Mukherjee, Julie Townsend, Jaime Waydo (in back row) are featured here in the laboratory where an engineering model of the next Mars rover, Curiosity, is being test...

This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows details of rock texture and color in an area where the rover's Dust Removal Tool (DRT) brushed away dust that ...

These two signature microchips (circled in red) carry 1.2 million names submitted from the public.

Pictured here are a few of the women working on Mars with the Curiosity test rover model in the background. The image was taken in the "Mars Yard" where the ground test model of the Curiosity rover...