Desolate Landscape

This April 4, 2014, image from Curiosity's Mastcam looks to the west of a waypoint on the rover's route to Mount Sharp. The mountain lies to the left of the scene. The image shows sets of sandstone...

This is the first image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT).

This video (part 3 of a 4 part series) shows engineers testing a new parachute in the largest wind tunnel on Earth for the Curiosity rover prior to its landing on August 2012.

This map shows the location of "Cumberland," the second rock-drilling target for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, in relation to the rover's first drilling target, "John Klein," within the southwestern...

Peter C. Theisinger served as the first project manager of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

NASA's Curiosity finds crystals, Opportunity celebrates her 5,000th day on Mars and the MarCO smallsats get solar arrays.

In the clean room at JPL, engineers gather around the base of Curiosity's "neck" (the Mast) as they slowly lower it into place for attachment to the rover’s "body" (the Wet Electronics Box, or "WEB").

As the last step in a series of inspections of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, this camera's reclosable dust cover was opened for the first time during the 33r...

Discolored Fracture Zones in Martian Sandstone

Clay minerals are composed of layers. Water and cations (positive-charged ions) can be stored between these layers.

Download a coloring sheet of NASA MAVEN orbiter and Curiosity rover working together at Mars.

This mosaic of images shows layers of sediment on a boulder-sized rock called "Strathdon," as seen by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera carried by NASA's Curiosity rover. The images were tak...

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from where it landed in 2012 to its location in early March 2016, approaching 'Naukluft Plateau.' As the rover continues up Mount Shar...

This image shows a globe of Mars with the locations of the four proposed landing sites noted in white font and the locations of prior landed missions in yellow font. Prior landed missions include: ...

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover conducted a test on Oct. 17, 2017, as part of the rover team's development of a new way to use the rover's drill. This image from Curiosity's front Hazcam shows the dril...

The rock "Ithaca" shown here, with a rougher lower texture and smoother texture on top, appears to be a piece of the local sedimentary bedrock protruding from the surrounding soil in Gale Crater.

The Space Flight Operations Center, a National Historic Landmark, has been operational and staffed every day since 1964. Here engineers send and receive commands for any spacecraft in, and beyond,...

President Barack Obama talks on the phone with NASA's Curiosity Mars rover team aboard Air Force One during a flight to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Aug. 13, 2012.

Clara Ma poses with a model of Curiosity.

This image shows preparation for March 2011 testing of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, in a 25-foot-diameter (7.6-meter-diameter) space-simulation chamber. The testing was designed to...

This color view of the parachute and back shell that helped deliver NASA's Curiosity rover to the surface of the Red Planet was taken by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) came...

This close-up view of a stone found in San Diego was taken by a testing twin -- the "life test unit" -- of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory.

The Mars Descent Imager for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory took this image in October 2008.

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, largest of the 10 science instruments for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, will examine samples of Martian rocks, soil and atmosphere for inform...

This annotated artists' concept shows the location of all of the Curiosity rover's 17 cameras.