Odyssey Fact Sheet

Newly detailed mapping of local variations in Mars' gravitational pull on orbiters (center), combined with topographical mapping of the planet's mountains and valleys (left), yields the best-yet ma...

What's happened with InSight since it landed on Mars?

Although this may look like a hostile alien life form, it's actually a complex line of sand dunes near the northern ice cap of Mars.

Snow falls and ice and frost form on Mars, too. NASA's spacecraft on and orbiting the Red Planet reveal the similarities to and differences from how we experience winter on Earth.  

Cindy Oda stood up to share her experience working with NASA’s Opportunity rover during a team meeting in Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

A self-portrait taken by NASA's Curiosity rover taken on Sol 2082 (June 15, 2018). A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Gale Crater.

​As part of a Mars sample return mission, a rocket will carry a container of sample tubes with Martian rock and soil samples into orbit around Mars and release it for pick up by another spacecraft. 

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is using its self-driving capabilities as it treks across Jezero Crater seeking signs of ancient life and gathering rock and soil samples for planned return to Earth. 

This sequence of images – taken on May 22, 2021, by the navigation camera aboard NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – depicts the last 29 seconds of the rotorcraft’s sixth flight.

These are two views of the same observation of the Martian moon Phobos taken in both infrared and visible light by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter using its THEMIS camera. The image was taken on A...

This stereo scene looking back at where Curiosity crossed a dune at "Dingo Gap" combines several exposures taken by the Navigation Camera (Navcam) high on the rover's mast. It appears three dimensi...

The 21st rock core captured by NASA's Perseverance has a composition that would make it good at trapping and preserving signs of microbial life, if any was once present. The sample – shown being ta...

The Twin Peaks are modest-size hills to the southwest of the Mars Pathfinder landing site. They were discovered on the first panoramas taken by the IMP camera on the 4th of July, 1997, and subseque...

Left and right eyes of the Navigation Camera (Navcam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took the dozens of images combined into this stereo scene of the rover and its surroundings. The component image...

First THEMIS Image of Mars

The InSight mission is heading to Mars, but many spacecraft have died trying to get there. The current record for Mars missions is 18 successes, and 25 failures. InSight hopes to improve the odds.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson addresses participants during a climate roundtable at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Oct. 14, 2021.

The Mastcam-Z imager on NASA’s Perseverance rover captured a series of images on July 6 that were stitched together to show a field of boulders deposited in Jezero Crater by a fast-moving ancient r...

This image is located within Northern Sinus Meridiani, a region of ridged terrains and extensive stratigraphic layering. 

Gale Crater, home to NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, shows a new face in this image made using data from the THEMIS camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.

This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a section of Nanedi Valles, located in Xanthe Terra.

Have you ever asked the question, what is out there? So have we! That curiosity leads us to explore new places like Mars and its moons, Phobos and Deimos. Just what lies beyond the next valley, can...

Cumulative driving by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity surpassed marathon distance on March 24, 2015, as the rover neared a destination called "Marathon Valley," which is middle ground of ...

Power for Mars 2020 The electricity needed to operate NASA's Mars 2020 rover (pictured here) is provided by a power system called a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, or MMRTG. N...

A close-up image of a 2-inch-deep hole produced using a new drilling technique for NASA's Curiosity rover. The hole is about 0.6 inches across (1.6 centimeters). This image was taken by Curiosity's...