Mars Science Laboratory Stacked Spacecraft

On Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the 197-foot-tall United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket moves away from the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) during the vehicle's rollout to the l...

This figure shows the location of CHIMRA on the turret of NASA's Curiosity rover, together with a cutaway view of the device.

This full-resolution self-portrait shows the deck of NASA's Curiosity rover from the rover's Navigation cameras.

At the bottom of this valley, called Gediz Vallis, is a mound of boulders and debris that are believed to have been swept there by wet landslides billions of years ago. The rover team hopes to get ...

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity captured this stereo view using its Navigation Camera (Navcam) after a 17-foot (5.3 meter) drive on 477th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Dec. 8, 2013)...

Mobility Systems Engineer, Matt Heverly, explains how Curiosity's mobility system works to teachers participating the Curiosity Educator Conference at JPL.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has discovered lots of evidence of ancient lakes on the Red Planet – and this recent panorama shows intriguing new clues.

Spacecraft specialists test the descent stage and rover of the Mars Science Laboratory in this scene from the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

On Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the 197-foot-tall United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket arrives on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex-41, situated near the Atlantic Ocean.

Curiosity monitors radiation and spots elusive whirlwinds on Mars.

With NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft sealed inside its payload fairing, the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket rides smoke and flames as it rises from the launch pad at Space Lau...

Modern-day Mars experiences cyclical changes in climate and, consequently, ice distribution. Unlike Earth, the obliquity (or tilt) of Mars changes substantially on timescales of hundreds of thousan...

This image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the great diversity of grains found on the surface of a Martian rock.

This animation shows the approximate true position of NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. A 3-D virtual model of Curiosity is shown inside Gale Crater, near Mount Sharp, Curiosity's ultimate destinatio...

New Year's Eve revelers watching giant screens in New York's Times Square saw a special Happy New Year greeting from Mars, currently 206 million miles away. (No audio)

Soil clinging to the right middle and rear wheels of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity can be seen in this image taken by the Curiosity's Navigation Camera after the rover's third drive on Mars.

This set of images illustrates the twin cameras of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover (upper left), the Mastcam calibration target (lower center), and the locations...

In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a technician inspects beneath NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission aeroshell, (containing the compact ...

Peter C. Theisinger served as the first project manager of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Engineers and technicians have been planning for months and working for weeks on the big move for NASA's Mars Curiosity rover.

Employees at Space Launch Complex 41 of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., keep watch as the payload fairing containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is lifted up the side of the V...

This full-resolution image from NASA's Curiosity shows the turret of tools at the end of the rover's extended robotic arm on Aug. 20, 2012. The Navigation Camera captured this view.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured these "sun rays" shining through clouds at sunset on Feb. 2, 2023, the 3,730th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. It was the first time that sun rays, also kn...

This close-up view of a stone found in San Diego was taken by a testing twin -- the "life test unit" -- of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory.

This image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover looks down the ramp at the northeastern end of "Hidden Valley" and across the sandy-floored valley to lower slopes of Mount Sharp on the horizon.