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CURIOSITY IMAGES

Critical Step in Next Mars Rover Landing

Artist's concept of Curiosity as it is being lowered for landing.

May 20, 2010

This artist's concept from an animation depicts Curiosity, the rover to be launched in 2011 by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, as it is being lowered by the mission's rocket-powered descent stage during a critical moment of the "sky crane" landing in 2012.

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Peter C. Theisinger served as the first project manager of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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Peter C. Theisinger served as the first project manager of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Pete Theisinger
This animation shows a proposed route up Mount Sharp that NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover could follow in the future. “Rafael Navarro Mountain” is marked along the way.
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animation shows a proposed route up Mount Sharp that the rover could follow in the future
The Route Past Rafael Navarro Mountain
Goal 4: Prepare for human exploration
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This image shows a backward-looking view of an astronaut in a white spacesuit hiking over reddish sand and rocks on Mars. A gray plume of smoke rises from a fumarole behind the astronaut.
Goal 4: Prepare for human exploration
This graphic shows the flux of radiation detected by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory on the trip from Earth to Mars from December 2011 to July 2012.
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This graphic shows the flux of radiation detected by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory on the trip from Earth to Mars from December 2011 to July 2012.
Radiation Levels on the Way to Mars
This image shows engineer Sean Haggert. Wearing a white lab coat, gloves, face mask, and hair covering to protect spacecraft parts from contamination, engineer Sean Haggert places his hands on eith...
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This image shows engineer Sean Haggert. Wearing a white lab coat, gloves, face mask, and hair covering to protect spacecraft parts from contamination, engineer Sean Haggert places his hands on either edge of one of the black, cleated wheels of the Mars Science Laboratory rover.
Big Wheels Cross The Finish Line...for Now!
The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is developing techniques that the rover might be able to use to resume drilling into rocks on Mars. In this June 2017 photo, JPL robotics engineer Vla...
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Testing New Techniques for Mars Rover Rock-Drilling
Testing New Techniques for Mars Rover Rock-Drilling
This image shows a globe of Mars with the locations of the four proposed landing sites noted in white font and the locations of prior landed missions in yellow font. Prior landed missions include: ...
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This image shows a globe of Mars with the locations of the four proposed landing sites noted in white font and the locations of prior landed missions in yellow font. Prior landed missions include: Viking 1 and 2, Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity, and Phoenix. Proposed MSL landing sites include: Mawrth Vallis, Gale Crater, Holden Crater, and Eberswalde Crater.
Four Candidate Landing Sites
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover (blue line) and locations where the rover's ChemCam instrument detected the element boron (dots, colored by abundance of boron accordi...
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This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover (blue line) and locations where the rover's ChemCam instrument detected the element boron (dots, colored by abundance of boron according to the key at right). The inset is a blowup of the most recent portion of the traverse.
Where's Boron? Mars Rover Detects It
The sequence of six images in this animation shows sunspots as viewed by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from April 4 to April 15, 2015. From Mars, the rover was in position to see the opposite side of...
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The sequence of six images in this animation shows sunspots as viewed by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from April 4 to April 15, 2015. From Mars, the rover was in position to see the opposite side of the sun from the side facing Earth during this period. North is up.
Tracking Sunspots from Mars, April 2015
This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the first sample-collection hole drilled in Mount Sharp, the layered mountain that is the science desti...
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This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the first sample-collection hole drilled in Mount Sharp, the layered mountain that is the science destination of the rover's extended mission.
First Sampling Hole in Mount Sharp
This series of images shows the Martian moon Deimos as it crossed in front of the Sun, as seen by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Sunday, March 17, 2019 (the 2,350th Martian day, or sol, of the miss...
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This series of images shows the Martian moon Deimos as it crossed in front of the Sun, as seen by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.
Curiosity Observes Deimos 'Eclipse': Sol 2350
These 26 holes represent each of the rock samples NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has collected as of early July 2020. A map in the upper left shows where the holes were drilled along the rover's route...
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26 holes represent each of the rock samples NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has collected
Curiosity's Rock Collection as of July 2020
At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians using an overhead crane, move the aeroshell, a component of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), ...
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At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians using an overhead crane, move the aeroshell, a component of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), back to a work stand after a spin and balance test.
Preparing the Aeroshell
This is an artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft approaching Mars.
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This is an artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft approaching Mars.
Curiosity Approaching Mars, Artist's Concept
This mosaic image shows part of the left side of NASA's Curiosity rover and two blast marks from the descent stage's rocket engines.
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Traces of Landing
Traces of Landing
The rock "Ithaca" shown here, with a rougher lower texture and smoother texture on top, appears to be a piece of the local sedimentary bedrock protruding from the surrounding soil in Gale Crater.
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The rock "Ithaca" shown here, with a rougher lower texture and smoother texture on top, appears to be a piece of the local sedimentary bedrock protruding from the surrounding soil in Gale Crater.
Target Rock 'Ithaca' in Gale Crater, Mars
This photograph of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, was taken during mobility testing on June 3, 2011.
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This photograph of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, was taken during mobility testing on June 3, 2011. The location is inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Mars Rover Curiosity, Turning in Place
A sweeping panorama combining 33 telephoto images into one Martian vista presents details of several types of terrain visible on Mount Sharp from a location along the route of NASA's Curiosity Mars...
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A sweeping panorama combining 33 telephoto images into one Martian vista presents details of several types of terrain visible on Mount Sharp from a location along the route of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The component images were taken by the rover's Mast Camera on April 10, 2015.
Diverse Terrain Types on Mount Sharp, Mars
It takes a whole team to operate Curiosity's arm. Pictured here are just a few of the team members who put their "muscle" to work every day to help operate Curiosity's arm on Mars.
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It takes a whole team to operate Curiosity's arm. Pictured here are just a few of the team members who put their "muscle" to work every day to help operate Curiosity's arm on Mars.
Sifting through the "Martian Soil"
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this view of layered, flaky rocks believed to have formed in an ancient streambed or small pond. The six images that make up this mosaic were captured using Cur...
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this view of layered, flaky rocks believed to have formed in an ancient streambed or small pond – the six images that make up this mosaic were captured using Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on June 2, 2022, the 3,492nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Curiosity's Mastcam Views Flaky, Streambed Rocks
In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians assist as the payload fairing of an Atlas V rocket approaches a transporter for the move to Space ...
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In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians assist as the payload fairing of an Atlas V rocket approaches a transporter for the move to Space Launch Complex 41.
Technicians Prepare to Move Payload Fairing
This wide-angle view shows the High Bay 1 cleanroom inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Specialists are working on components of the Mars S...
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This wide-angle view shows the High Bay 1 cleanroom inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Working on Curiosity in JPL Spacecraft Assembly Facility
The red "X" marks the spot where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars.
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Zeroing in on Rover's Landing Site
Zeroing in on Rover's Landing Site
This movie begins with an expansive 360-degree view from NASA's Curiosity rover, showing the surrounding terrain within Gale Crater, then zooms in on the rover's deck. The full-resolution images we...
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Up, Down and All Around Curiosity
Up, Down and All Around Curiosity
This illustration provides a comparison for how big the moons of Mars appear to be, as seen from the surface of Mars, in relation to the size that Earth's moon appears to be when seen from the surf...
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This illustration provides a comparison for how big the moons of Mars appear to be, as seen from the surface of Mars, in relation to the size that Earth's moon appears to be when seen from the surface of Earth.
Illustration Comparing Apparent Sizes of Moons

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