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Mars Science Laboratory Landing Press Kit

MSL landing press kit

July 01, 2012

Download a PDF of the Mars Science Laboratory Landing Press Kit.

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This mosaic shows various scenes captured from a location called "Housedon Hill" by the ChemCam instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover between September 9 and October 23, 2020 (Sols 2878 and...
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This mosaic shows various scenes captured from a location called "Housedon Hill" by the ChemCam instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover between September 9 and October 23, 2020 (Sols 2878 and 2921).
ChemCam's "Housedon Hill" Panorama
This diagram depicts a vertical cross section through geological layers deposited by rivers, deltas and lakes. Deposits from a series of successive deltas build out increasingly high in elevation a...
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This diagram depicts a vertical cross section through geological layers deposited by rivers, deltas and lakes. Deposits from a series of successive deltas build out increasingly high in elevation as they migrate toward the center of the basin, over lake deposits.
Multiple Deltas Built Out Over Time
In this image, the car-size rover is in the middle of the picture with several team members surrounding it. The team members are all dressed in special head-to-toe white suits, called 'bunny suits....
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In this image, the car-size rover is in the middle of the picture with several team members surrounding it. The team members are all dressed in special head-to-toe white suits, called 'bunny suits.' One team member is holding on to a tether to guide the large insect-like descent stage down on top of the rover. The descent stage looms high in this image.
So Happy Together
The highest concentration of boron measured on Mars, as of late 2016, is in this mineral vein examined with the ChemCam instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover on Aug, 25, 2016. Orange bars indicate b...
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The highest concentration of boron measured on Mars, as of late 2016, is in this mineral vein examined with the ChemCam instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover on Aug, 25, 2016. Orange bars indicate boron content at points in the calcium sulfate vein. The context image is from Curiosity's Mastcam.
Boron in Calcium Sulfate Vein at 'Catabola,' Mars
Engineers work on Opportunity (in its cruise configuration) in a cleanroom at Kennedy Space Center. A very important part of planetary protection is keeping contaminants from humans from riding abo...
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Engineers work on Opportunity (in its cruise configuration) in a cleanroom at Kennedy Space Center. A very important part of planetary protection is keeping contaminants from humans from riding aboard spacecraft. The pictured engineers are donning "bunny suits" that only allow their eyes to be exposed.
Planetary Protection Technologies Opportunity at the Cape
The pale rocks in the foreground of this fisheye image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover include the "Bonanza King" target under consideration to become the fourth rock drilled by the Mars Science L...
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The pale rocks in the foreground of this fisheye image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover include the "Bonanza King" target under consideration to become the fourth rock drilled by the Mars Science Laboratory mission
View Down 'Hidden Valley' Ramp at 'Bonanza King' on Mars
Testing of the cruise stage for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory in August 2010 included a session in a facility that simulates the environment found in interplanetary space.
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Testing of the cruise stage for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory in August 2010 included a session in a facility that simulates the environment found in interplanetary space.
Mars Science Laboratory's Cruise Stage in Test Chamber
NASA’s InSight lander detected seismic waves from a meteoroid and was able to capture the sound of the space rock striking the surface of Mars for the first time. The meteoroid – the term used for ...
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This video shows the first time seismic and acoustic waves from an impact were detected on the Red Planet.
Hear Meteoroid Striking Mars, Captured by NASA's InSight Lander
On Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the payload fairing protecting NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) stands atop the 197-foot-tall United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket during rollou...
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On Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the payload fairing protecting NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) stands atop the 197-foot-tall United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket during rollout to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41.
MSL Atop Atlas V
NASA's Curiosity rover explores Mount Sharp, a 5-mile-tall (8-kilometer-tall) mountain within the basin of Gale Crater on Mars. 
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NASA's Curiosity rover explores Mount Sharp, a 5-mile-tall (8-kilometer-tall) mountain within the basin of Gale Crater on Mars.
NASA's Curiosity Rover Explores a Mountain on Mars
This image is located within Northern Sinus Meridiani, a region of ridged terrains and extensive stratigraphic layering. 
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This image is located within Northern Sinus Meridiani, a region of ridged terrains and extensive stratigraphic layering.
Crater with Surrounding Bench in Sinus Meridiani (3-D)
Time-lapse movie of the NASA Mars Curiosity rover's last days in the clean room before being shipped to Florida for launch. (Audio: music only)
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Packing for Florida
Packing for Florida
Data graphed here are examples from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory's detection of Martian organics in a sample of powder that the drill on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected from a...
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Data graphed here are examples from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory's detection of Martian organics in a sample of powder that the drill on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected from a rock target called "Cumberland."
Data from Detection of Organics in a Rock on Mars
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 map shows the two locations of a research campaign by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover mission to investigate active sand dunes on Mars. In late 2015, Curiosity reached crescent-shaped dunes, calle...
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This map shows the two locations of a research campaign by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover mission to investigate active sand dunes on Mars. In late 2015, Curiosity reached crescent-shaped dunes, called barchans. In February 2017, the rover reached a location where the dunes are linear in shape.
Curiosity's Bagnold Dunes Campaign: Two Types of Dunes
This image shows the underside of a grey F/A-18 jet with dark stripes flying against a blue sky from quite a distance away. Underneath the jet is a pod carrying sensors that measure the jet's tempe...
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This image shows the underside of a grey F/A-18 jet with dark stripes flying against a blue sky from quite a distance away. Underneath the jet is a pod carrying sensors that measure the jet's temperature, pressure and vibration.
High-Flying Test Rides
This artist's concept depicts astronauts and human habitats on Mars. NASA's Mars 2020 rover will carry a number of technologies that could make Mars safer and easier to explore for humans.
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This artist's concept depicts astronauts and human habitats on Mars. NASA's Mars 2020 rover will carry a number of technologies that could make Mars safer and easier to explore for humans.
First Humans on Mars
This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Mojave" site, where its drill collected the mission's second taste of Mount Sharp. The scene combines dozens of images ta...
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This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the 'Mojave' site, where its drill collected the mission's second taste of Mount Sharp. The scene combines dozens of images taken during January 2015 by the MAHLI camera at the end of the rover's robotic arm.
Curiosity Self-Portrait at 'Mojave' on Mount Sharp
This artist's concept is a simulation of what seismic waves from a marsquake might look like as they move through different layers of the Martian interior.
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This artist's concept is a simulation of what seismic waves from a marsquake might look like as they move through different layers of the Martian interior.
Seismic Waves Inside Mars
InSight is lining up to land on Mars. The trip from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars is 6-and-a-half minutes of sheer terror.
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InSight is lining up to land on Mars. The trip from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars is 6-and-a-half minutes of sheer terror.
Arrival
People with special talents will always be in demand for our Journey To Mars. Whether repairing an antenna in the extreme environment of Mars, or setting up an outpost on the moon Phobos, having th...
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Technicians Wanted to Engineer our Future on Mars Poster
Technicians Wanted to Engineer our Future on Mars
Light material emplaced within darker vein material is seen in this view of a mineral vein at the "Garden City" site on lower Mount Sharp, Mars. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the arm of NAS...
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Light material emplaced within darker vein material is seen in this view of a mineral vein at the "Garden City" site on lower Mount Sharp, Mars. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the arm of NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover took the image on April 4, 2015. The area shown is roughly 0.4 inch wide.
Injection of Light Material into an Older Dark Vein
Ian Clark walks past mission countdown clocks in the Perseverance offices at JPL. Clark was needed on-Lab to supervise the assembly and cleaning of the sample tubes that will hold Martian sediment ...
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Ian Clark walks past mission countdown clocks in the Perseverance offices at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Countdown to Launch
This illustration depicts a lake of water partially filling Mars' Gale Crater, receiving runoff from snow melting on the crater's northern rim.
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This simulation depicts a lake partially filling Mars' Gale Crater, receiving runoff from snow melting on the crater's rim. Evidence that NASA's Curiosity rover has found of ancient streams, deltas and lakes suggests the crater held a lake such as this more than three billion years ago.
Simulated View of Gale Crater Lake on Mars
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

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