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Getting Ready for Landing

The Mars Science Laboratory mission team prepares for entry, descent and landing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Space Flight Operations Facility in Pasadena, Calif., as Curiosity is hours from landing.

August 05, 2012

The Mars Science Laboratory mission team prepares for entry, descent and landing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Space Flight Operations Facility in Pasadena, Calif., as Curiosity is hours from landing.

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This mosaic image shows the first target NASA's Curiosity rover aims to zap with its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument.
Curiosity's First Rock Star
After a rocket-powered descent stage, also known as the sky crane, delivered NASA's Curiosity rover to Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT), 2012, it flew away and fell to the surface.
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This view of Curiosity's left-front and left-center wheels and of marks made by wheels on the ground in the "Yellowknife Bay" area comes from one of six cameras used on Mars for the first time more...
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This view of Curiosity's left-front and left-center wheels and of marks made by wheels on the ground in the "Yellowknife Bay" area comes from one of six cameras used on Mars for the first time more than six months after the rover landed.
View From Camera Not Used During Curiosity's First Six Months on Mars
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3D model of Curiosity rover
Curiosity Rover, 3D Model
This image shows the first holes into rock drilled by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, with drill tailings around the holes plus piles of powdered rock collected from the deeper hole and later discarde...
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This image shows the first holes into rock drilled by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, with drill tailings around the holes plus piles of powdered rock collected from the deeper hole and later discarded after other portions of the sample had been delivered to analytical instruments inside the rover.
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President Obama Calls Curiosity Team
President Obama Calls Curiosity Team
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...
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This image shows a base map of Mount Sharp with the transition between the "Murray Formation," with the rover's old path marked in white and the new path marked in yellow.
Geological Transition
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars in its approach to and April 1, 2014, arrival at a waypoint called "the Kimberley," which rover team scientists chose in 2013 as the locatio...
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This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars in its approach to and April 1, 2014, arrival at a waypoint called "the Kimberley," which rover team scientists chose in 2013 as the location for the mission's next major investigations.
Map of Curiosity Mars Rover's Drives to 'the Kimberley' Waypoint
This full-resolution image shows part of the deck of NASA's Curiosity rover taken from one of the rover's Navigation cameras looking toward the back left of the rover.
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A Clear Look at the Rover Deck
A Clear Look at the Rover Deck
NASA's Curiosity rover has detected the simple carbon-containing compounds chloro- and dichloromethane from the powdered rock sample extracted from the "John Klein" rock on Mars.
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NASA's Curiosity rover has detected the simple carbon-containing compounds chloro- and dichloromethane from the powdered rock sample extracted from the "John Klein" rock on Mars.
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Scarecrow is a full-scale version of Curiosity, but without the “brains.” Engineers use it to test drive on different types of terrain. In this image, the rover was taken out to the Dumont Dunes in...
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Scarecrow Rover Desert Tests
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Image showing NASA's Curiosity rover to the left and Mars 2020 rover to the right.
Side-by-Side: Curiosity and Mars 2020
The foreground of this scene from the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows purple-hued rocks near the rover's late-2016 location. The middle distance includes future destinations for the ro...
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The foreground of this scene from the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows purple-hued rocks near the rover's late-2016 location. The middle distance includes future destinations for the rover. Variations in color of the rocks hint at the diversity of their composition on lower Mount Sharp.
Color Variations on Mount Sharp, Mars (White Balanced)
Arm and Mast of NASA Mars Rover Curiosity
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Arm and Mast of NASA Mars Rover Curiosity
Arm and Mast of NASA Mars Rover Curiosity
Mars has two small, asteroid-sized moons named Phobos and Deimos.
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Phobos in Transit (M-34)
A crane is attached to the first stage of the Atlas V rocket for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission upon its arrival at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cap...
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A crane is attached to the first stage of the Atlas V rocket for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission upon its arrival at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Atlas V Arrives at Launch Pad
Amanda Steffy and Rob Sullivan help shape a course of sand ripples for the Scarecrow rover to drive over. This test was done in the Dumont Dunes in California's Mojave Desert, near Death Valley.
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sand dune, mars rover, wheel, Dumont, Scarecrow, test - This image shows a row of uphill, white sand dunes that JPL engineers shape with long rakes for desert rover test, under blue skies. The Scarecrow rover sits at the bottom, waiting to be tested.
Replicating Martian Dunes
NASA's NEOWISE mission detected comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring on July 28, 2014, less than three months before this comet's close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19. This merging of multiple images presents t...
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NASA's NEOWISE mission detected comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring on July 28, 2014, less than three months before this comet's close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19. This merging of multiple images presents the comet in four different positions relative to the background stars.
NEOWISE Spies Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring a Second Time
In the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41, the payload fairing containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft was attached to its Atlas V rocket on Nov. 3, 2011.
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In the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41, the payload fairing containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft was attached to its Atlas V rocket on Nov. 3, 2011.
Mars Science Laboratory Atop Its Atlas V
This image shows the front sides of three rovers viewed at an angle. On the right is the Mars Science Laboratory rover, which is the size of a small sport utility vehicle. Its 7-foot-long arm is ex...
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This image shows the front sides of three rovers viewed at an angle. On the right is the Mars Science Laboratory rover, which is the size of a small sport utility vehicle. Its 7-foot-long arm is extended in front of it, resting on the pavement. The camera 'eyes' at the top of its mast are turned downward at its smaller predecessors. In the middle, the tiny, wagon-size Sojourner rover has a deployable, alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer and single-color camera attached at its rear. On the left, the dune-buggy-size Mars Exploration Rover has its robotic arm extended in front of it, resting on the pavement. The panoramic camera 'eyes' at the top of its mast are turned upward, as if 'looking' at the bigger Mars Science Laboratory rover. All three rovers have six wheels, rocker-bogey suspension systems, rectangular bodies, solar panels, and antennas pointing upward from their spacecraft decks.
Third-Generation Mars Rover Dwarfs Predecessors
NASA's Curiosity finds that the Red Planet doesn't have the same atmosphere it used to.
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Mars' Bygone Atmosphere
Mars' Bygone Atmosphere
The hole that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover drilled into target rock "John Klein" provided a view into the interior of the rock, as well as obtaining a sample of powdered material from the rock.
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The hole that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover drilled into target rock "John Klein" provided a view into the interior of the rock, as well as obtaining a sample of powdered material from the rock.
View into 'John Klein' Drill Hole in Martian Mudstone
Download a coloring sheet of NASA MAVEN orbiter and Curiosity rover working together at Mars.
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Testing of Mars Landing Radar near Lancaster, Calif.
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Testing of Mars Landing Radar near Lancaster, Calif.
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At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians process the backshell for 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 process the backshell for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).
Preparing the Backshell

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