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CURIOSITY VIDEOS

Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity Rover) Mission Animation

April 04, 2011

This artist's concept animation depicts key events in NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, including launch; cruise; entry, descent & landing; and, surface operations.

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This images shows the powered descent, crane and flyaway portions of edl.
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This images shows the powered descent, crane and flyaway portions of edl.
Powered Descent, Sky Crane & Flyaway
Dr. John Holdren, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, 3rd from left, meets with members of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory team on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, at the Eisenhower Ex...
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Dr. John Holdren, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, 3rd from left, meets with members of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory team on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington.
Mars Science Laboratory Team Meets OSTP Director Holdren
This color full-resolution image showing the heat shield of NASA's Curiosity rover was obtained during descent to the surface of Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT).
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Curiosity's Heat Shield in Detail
Curiosity's Heat Shield in Detail
This set of images illustrates the twin cameras of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover (upper left), the Mastcam calibration target (lower center), and the locations...
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This set of images illustrates the twin cameras of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover (upper left), the Mastcam calibration target (lower center), and the locations of the cameras and target on the rover.
Mast Camera and Its Calibration Target on Curiosity Rover
After four years on Mars, Curiosity rover and her operations team are now seasoned explorers, anxious to climb to greater heights on Mount Sharp.
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Curiosity Rover Report: Four Years on Mars
Curiosity Rover Report: Four Years on Mars
An artist's concept illustrates what the Mars rover Curiosity will look like on Mars. The Mars Science Laboratory rover is larger and can travel farther than Spirit and Opportunity, NASA's two Ma...
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Mars Science Laboratory with Power Source and Extended Arm, Artist's Concept
Mars Science Laboratory
This image is from a test series used to characterize the 100-millimeter Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover. It was taken on Aug. 23, 2012, and looks south-southwest from the rover's landing site.
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This image is from a test series used to characterize the 100-millimeter Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover. It was taken on Aug. 23, 2012, and looks south-southwest from the rover's landing site.
Focusing the 100-millimeter Mastcam
This is an artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft during its cruise phase between launch and final approach to Mars.
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This is an artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft during its cruise phase between launch and final approach to Mars.
Mars Science Laboratory Spacecraft During Cruise, Artist's Concept
See the steep slopes, layered buttes, and dark rocks surrounding Curiosity while it was parked below Gediz Vallis Ridge, which formed as a result of violent debris flows that were later eroded by w...
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On Aug. 19, 2023, Curiosity’s Mastcam took 136 images that were stitched together into this mosaic after being sent back to Earth. The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.
NASA's Curiosity Rover Reaches Gediz Vallis Ridge (360 View)
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
Side-by-side images depict NASA's Curiosity rover (left) and a moon buggy driven during the Apollo 16 mission.
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Side-by-side images depict NASA's Curiosity rover (left) and a moon buggy driven during the Apollo 16 mission.
A Mars Buggy and a Moon Buggy
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the location where it landed in August 2012 to its location in December 2016, which is in the upper half of a geological unit cal...
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This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the location where it landed in August 2012 to its location in December 2016, which is in the upper half of a geological unit called the Murray formation, on lower Mount Sharp.
Late 2016 Map of NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Mission
The Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this mosaic as it explored the "clay-bearing unit" on Feb. 3, 2019 (Sol 2309).
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Mosaic captured by The Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, exploring the "clay-bearing unit" on Feb. 3, 2019 (Sol 2309).
"Knockfarril Hill"
Engineers put the rover through spin tests to ensure smooth sailing in space.
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Building Curiosity: Going For A Spin
Building Curiosity: Going For A Spin
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover can be seen at the "Pahrump Hills" area of Gale Crater in this view from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orb...
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NASA's Curiosity Mars rover can be seen at the "Pahrump Hills" area of Gale Crater in this view from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Curiosity Rover at 'Pahrump Hills'
At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians, using an overhead crane, separate the two components of the aeroshell, an element of NASA's Mars ...
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At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians, using an overhead crane, separate the two components of the aeroshell, an element of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), after testing.
Aeroshell Testing
The hills and troughs in this little valley, carved between a ridge and cliffs higher up Mount Sharp, almost look like undulating waves. The Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover cap...
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The hills and troughs in this little valley, carved between a ridge and cliffs higher up Mount Sharp, almost look like undulating waves.
Curiosity Sees 'Waves' in the Clay Unit
This sequence of images shows the heat shield from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory hitting the ground on Mars and raising a cloud of dust. The images were taken by the Mars Descent Imager on the mis...
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Heat Shield, Meet Mars
Heat Shield, Meet Mars
This collage shows the variety of soils found at landing sites on Mars.
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This collage shows the variety of soils found at landing sites on Mars.
A Sampling of Martian Soils
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).
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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).
What Lies Behind Curiosity
The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station will monitor atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind currents, and ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/INTA (Instituto Naciona...
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This engineering drawing show a section of the ccylindrical rover mast with two small booms extending laterally from it. The ooms are labeled Boom 1 (on the left and Boom 2 (on the right).
Rover Environmental Monitoring Station
"Vera Rubin Ridge," a favored destination for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover even before the rover landed in 2012, rises near the rover nearly five years later in this panorama from Curiosity's Mastca...
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"Vera Rubin Ridge," a favored destination for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover even before the rover landed in 2012, rises near the rover nearly five years later in this panorama from Curiosity's Mastcam. The scene combines 23 images taken with the Mastcam's right-eye camera, on June 22, 2017.
Curiosity View of 'Vera Rubin Ridge' From Below, Sol 1734
This cut-out from a color panorama image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover shows the effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground.
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A Set of Blast Marks in Color, Left Side
A Set of Blast Marks in Color, Left Side
This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows an example of a type of geometrically distinctive feature that researchers are using Curiosity to exami...
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This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows an example of a type of geometrically distinctive feature that researchers are examining at a mudstone outcrop at the base of Mount Sharp.
Resistant Features in 'Pahrump Hills' Outcrop
This graphic shows the variation of radiation dose measured by the Radiation Assessment Detector on NASA's Curiosity rover over about 50 sols, or Martian days, on Mars.
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This graphic shows the variation of radiation dose measured by the Radiation Assessment Detector on NASA's Curiosity rover over about 50 sols, or Martian days, on Mars.
Longer-Term Radiation Variations at Gale Crater

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