Mars as Art (2013)

NASA and the European Space Agency are now working together to explore options for a pair of missions that could take the next steps to bring samples back from Mars.

This global map of Mars was acquired on July 31, 2012, by the Mars Color Imager instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Dunes on Floor of Samara Valles, Mars

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

This area at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars includes a pale outcrop, called "Pahrump Hills," that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover investigated from September 2014 to March 2015, and the "Artist's Driv...

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...

Transverse Impulse Rocket System (TIRS) Configuration

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.

This graphic shows how the energy available to NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars (in watt-hours) depends on how clear or opaque the atmosphere is (measured in a value called tau). When the tau value...

The Lincoln penny in this photograph is part of a camera calibration target attached to NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, which is on track for a landing on Mars the night of Aug. 5 to Aug. 6, 2012.

This animation demonstrates the salty ponds and streams that scientists think may have been left behind as Gale Crater dried out over time. The bottom of the image is the floor of Gale Crater, with...

A proposed helicopter could triple the distances that Mars rovers can drive in a Martian day and help pinpoint interesting targets for study.

An artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (left) serves to compare it with Spirit, one of NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas of this scene at two times of day. Blue, orange, and green color was added to a combination of both pano...

The lower portion of a mountain inside Gale crater on Mars contains layers that may be examined by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory.

Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu is in charge of the InSight mission’s robotic arm and hand. His work on space robots has led him to give a helping hand back home.

This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows an example of cross-bedding that results from water passing over a loose bed of sediment.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover examined both the "Greenhorn" and "Big Sky" targets with the rover's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument. Greenhorn is located within an altered fracture...

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has caught the first image of asteroids taken from the surface of Mars.

From left: Dave Lavery, program executive for Solar System Exploration at NASA Headquarters, Dr. Ed Weiler, associate administrator, Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters, Pe...

The white speck is NASA’s Perseverance rover in the “South Séítah” area of Mars’ Jezero Crater.

NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, will launch toward Mars in 2003 in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. The rovers will be targeted to sites that appear ...

Curiosity is a big part of what it means to be human. It's also the name of NASA's next Mars rover. This 60-second video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows how one type of curiosity can in...

This chart graphs measurements made by the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity against the distance the rover has driven, in meters.

These two images from 10 days apart show that dust was removed from the panoramic camera's calibration target on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit.