MAVEN Fact Sheet

The electricity for NASA's Mars 2020 rover is provided by a power system called a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, or MMRTG. The MMRTG will be inserted into the aft end of the r...

Stay curious with NASA and celebrate the agency’s Curiosity Mars rover’s 10th anniversary on the Red Planet with a two-sided poster that lists some of the intrepid explorer’s inspiring accomplishme...

NASA and the European Space Agency are developing plans for one of the most ambitious campaigns ever attempted in space: bringing the first samples of Mars material safely back to Earth for detaile...

On May 1, 2013, followers of the NASA MAVEN mission can begin entering their names to be placed on a specially designed DVD that will accompany the spacecraft on its journey to Mars this November.

The “mole,” a heat probe that traveled to Mars aboard NASA’s InSight lander, as it looked after hammering on Jan. 9, 2021, the 754th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. After trying since Feb. 28,...

This graphic depicts the relative shapes and distances from Mars for five active orbiter missions plus the planet's two natural satellites. It illustrates the potential for intersections of the spa...

The Mars 2020 rover undergoes an "eye" exam after several cameras were installed. The rover carries everything from wide-angle landscape cameras to narrow-angle high-resolution zoom lens cameras. T...

MAVEN positioned atop Atlas V rocket.

This photo taken on March 3 shows the large hydrazine propellant tank prior to integration with the core structure of the MAVEN spacecraft at a Lockheed Martin clean room near Denver.

The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) measures the composition and isotopes of thermal neutrals and ions.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flew over this dune field in a region of Jezero Crater nicknamed “Séítah” during its ninth flight, on July 5, 2021. A portion of the helicopter’s landing gear can b...

Shalbatana Vallis is a large channel with steep walls and a flat floor that may have formed by water draining from nearby Ganges Chasma. Here a section of the wall collapsed and produced a landslid...

In this image, taken on June 13, 2019, engineers prepare the starboard legs and wheels — otherwise known as the mobility suspension — for integration onto NASA's Mars 2020 rover.

Meet two of the Martian samples that have been collected and are awaiting return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. As of late June 2023, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has collec...

NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, inside a payload fairing, is hoisted to the top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the Vertical Integration Facility at ...

Aerobraking plan for MAVEN

As of August 29th, the MAVEN spacecraft is 198 million kilometers (123 million miles) from Earth and 6.6 million kilometers (4.1 million miles) from Mars.

Download a PDF of the Mars as Art Booklet.

The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (Hi-RISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this avalanche plunging down a 1,640-foot-tall (500-meter-tall) cliff on May 29, 2...

This image shows part of Ladon Vallis that is located within Ladon basin.

The smaller, narrow ridges oriented vertically are yardangs, which are created by wind erosion; the wind strips away the surrounding terrain, and the ridges remain because they contain more hardene...

This GIF shows NASA InSight's heat probe, or "mole," digging about a centimeter (half an inch) below the surface last week. Using a technique called "pinning," InSight recently pressed the scoop on...

Aram Chaos is a heavily eroded impact crater that contains jumbled blocks of material disrupted when large quantities of ice or water were catastrophically removed. The light toned sediments may ha...

Missions to outer space have come a long way since the days of Cold War competition. Farah Alibay finds that building relationships is a big part of building spacecraft.

On January 24, 2017, Opportunity celebrates her 13 years on Mars. On Earth, she's officially a teenager and she's been behaving like one.