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Mars Science Laboratory Talks, Rocks, Bakes and Chills (spacecraft)

This image shows the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is suspended in a dark chamber, awaiting an environmental test.

February 25, 2009

This image shows the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is suspended in a dark chamber, awaiting an environmental test.

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

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NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas of "Marker Band Valley" at two times of day on April 8. Color was added to a combination of both panoram...
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Panorama images of "Marker Band Valley" captured by Curiosity Mars rover's black-and-white navigation cameras.
Curiosity's 'Postcard' of 'Marker Band Valley'
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...
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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 changed over the subsequent 30 months. The images are from HiRISE on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Changes in Scars From 2012 Mars Landing
This view of "Vera Rubin Ridge" from the ChemCam instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows sedimentary layers and fracture-filling mineral deposits. ChemCam's telescopic Remote Micro-Imager t...
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This view of "Vera Rubin Ridge" from the ChemCam instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows sedimentary layers and fracture-filling mineral deposits. ChemCam's telescopic Remote Micro-Imager took the 10 component images of this scene on July 3, 2017, from a distance of about 377 feet.
Micro-imager View: Layers in 'Vera Rubin Ridge,' Mars
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 56th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Oct. 2, 2012).
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This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 56th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Oct. 2, 2012).
Curiosity's Travels Through Sol 56
Sandstone layers with varying resistance to erosion are evident in this Martian scene recorded by the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Feb. 25, 2014, about one-quarter mile (about 400 ...
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Sandstone layers with varying resistance to erosion are evident in this Martian scene recorded by the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Feb. 25, 2004, about one-quarter mile (about 400 meters) from a planned waypoint called "the Kimberley."
Differential Erosion at Work on Martian Sandstones (Raw Color)
Technicians at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, prepare the heat shield for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, in this April 2011 photo. With a diameter of 4.5 meters (nearly 15 feet), this heat...
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Technicians at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, prepare the heat shield for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, in this April 2011 photo. With a diameter of 4.5 meters (nearly 15 feet), this heat shield is the largest ever built for a planetary mission.
Preparing Mars Science Laboratory Heat Shield
A wheel track cuts through a windblown ripple of dusty sand in this Nov. 7, 2014, image from the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity rover. The view spans about four feet across. This experiment was planne...
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A wheel track cuts through a windblown ripple of dusty sand in this Nov. 7, 2014, image from the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity rover. The view spans about four feet across. This experiment was planned for yielding a view of the inside of the ripple for assessment of particle sizes and composition.
Ripple's Interior Exposed by Rover Wheel Track
This stereo view from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows a rock called "Link," which bears rounded pebbles that provide evidence about vigorous flow of water in a stream on ancient Mars.
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This stereo view from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows a rock called "Link," which bears rounded pebbles that provide evidence about vigorous flow of water in a stream on ancient Mars.
Evidence About a Martian Streambed (Stereo - Raw Color)
In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the fairing acoustic protection (FAP) system lines the inside of the Atlas V payload fairing for NASA's Mars S...
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In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the fairing acoustic protection (FAP) system lines the inside of the Atlas V payload fairing for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.
A Close Look at Curiosity's Fairings
This look back at a dune that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover drove across was taken by the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) during the 538th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Feb. 9, 2014).
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This look back at a dune that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover drove across was taken by the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) during the 538th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Feb. 9, 2014).
Curiosity's Color View of Martian Dune After Crossing It
This artist's concept shows how the cruise stage de-spins outside the martian atmosphere, turns to entry position, suffers peak heating just after entry, then peak deceleration, before deploying a ...
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This artist's concept shows how the cruise stage de-spins outside the martian atmosphere, turns to entry position, suffers peak heating just after entry, then peak deceleration, before deploying a parachute.
Cruise and Entry
This movie from NASA's Curiosity rover shows all the "thumbnail" (low-resolution) frames acquired by the Mars Descent Imager between the jettison of the heat shield and touchdown. The video, obtain...
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Dropping in on Mars: A Rover's Eye View
Dropping in on Mars: A Rover's Eye View
Curiosity will spend the holidays at a location on Mars dubbed "Grandma's House."
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Curiosity's Martian Holiday
Curiosity's Martian Holiday
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.
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The Martians: Testing Curiosity's Parachute - Part 3
The Martians: Testing Curiosity's Parachute - Part 3
This video, taken by one of the Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, shows the rover's robotic arm as it rotates to take a selfie. A camera at the end of the arm captured...
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This video, taken by one of the Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, shows the rover's robotic arm as it rotates to take a selfie. A camera at the end of the arm captured 86 individual images that were later stitched into a panorama.
Navcam Movie of How Curiosity Takes a Selfie
The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired close-up views of sands in the "Rocknest" wind drift to document the nature of the material that the rover scooped, sieved ...
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The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired close-up views of sands in the "Rocknest" wind drift to document the nature of the material that the rover scooped, sieved and delivered to the Chemistry and Mineralogy Experiment (CheMin) and the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) in October and November 2012.
Windblown Sand from the 'Rocknest' Drift (Unannotated)
This graph shows readings for atmospheric pressure at the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover.
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This graph shows readings for atmospheric pressure at the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover.
First Pressure Readings on Mars
This image shows a dry streambed on an alluvial fan in the Atacama Desert, Chile, revealing the typical patchy, heterogeneous mixture of grain sizes deposited together.
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This image shows a dry streambed on an alluvial fan in the Atacama Desert, Chile, revealing the typical patchy, heterogeneous mixture of grain sizes deposited together.
Dry Streambed on Alluvial Fan in Northern Chile
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) ...
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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) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Curiosity Rover Tracks, Viewed from Orbit in December 2013
The cruise stage of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is being prepared for final stacking of the spacecraft in this photograph from inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA ...
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The cruise stage of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is being prepared for final stacking of the spacecraft in this photograph from inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Mars Science Laboratory Cruise Stage
The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was used to check the composition of gray tailings from the hole in rock target "Cumberland" that the rover drilled on M...
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Drilled Hole and ChemCam Marks at 'Cumberland'
Drilled Hole and ChemCam Marks at 'Cumberland'
This view shows the patch of veined, flat-lying rock selected as the first drilling site for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
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This view shows the patch of veined, flat-lying rock selected as the first drilling site for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
'John Klein' Site Selected for Curiosity's Drill Debut
Download NASA's Mars Curiosity rover coloring sheet.
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Download NASA's Mars Curiosity rover coloring sheet.
Mars Curiosity Rover, Coloring Sheet
This oblique, southward-looking view of Gale crater shows the landing site and the mound of layered rocks that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will investigate.
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This oblique, southward-looking view of Gale crater shows the landing site and the mound of layered rocks that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will investigate.
Context of Curiosity Landing Site in Gale Crater, with Ellipse
This image, taken with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, shows the transition between the "Murray Formation," in which layers are poorly expressed and difficult to tra...
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This image shows a base map of Mount Sharp with the transition between the "Murray Formation," with the rover's old path marked in white and the new path marked in yellow.
Geological Transition

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