Curiosity's Stunt Double

This movie clip shows Phobos, the larger of the two moons of Mars, passing overhead, as observed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity in a series of images centered straight overhead starting shortly aft...

This image shows laser plasmas in a test lab at Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M., under typical atmospheric pressures on Earth and Mars.

This image of NASA's Curiosity rover shows the location of the two components of the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instrument.

As NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is progressing toward Mount Sharp, researchers are using the rover's instruments to examine soils and rocks in Gale Crater.

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the "Bradbury Landing" location where it landed in August 2012 (the start of the line in upper right) to a major waypoint called ...

One type of feature of scientific interest on the mountain inside Gale crater is exposure of cemented fractures, evidence that groundwater once reached to at least that height of the mountain.

A Martian target rock called "Nova," shown here, displayed an increasing concentration of aluminum as a series of laser shots from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover penetrated through dust on the rock's ...

In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, spacecraft technicians secure an Atlas V rocket payload fairing around NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).

This illustration shows the locations and interactions of volatiles on Mars. Volatiles are molecules that readily evaporate, converting to their gaseous form, such as water and carbon dioxide.

From a position in the shallow "Yellowknife Bay" depression, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its right Mast Camera (Mastcam) to take the telephoto images combined into this panorama of geological ...

This graphic illustrates how dimensions of clay minerals' crystal structure are affected by which ions are present in the mineral. The CheMin instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover identified di...

The two prominent mesas in this Aug. 18, 2016, view of Mars' "Murray Buttes" region from the Curiosity Mars rover's Mastcam are about 260 feet (about 80 meters) apart. The one on the right is about...

Technicians in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida put NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, known as Curiosity, through a series of rotation te...

Engineers use Curiosity's body double to practice robotic arm placement.

A dust storm continues to envelop the Red Planet and Curiosity’s labs are back in action.

This set of images shows a modern terrestrial analog to the "Yellowknife Bay" area that NASA's Curiosity rover is exploring.

This Dec. 5, 2015, view of the undisturbed surface of a Martian sand dune called "High Dune" shows coarse grains remaining on the surface after wind removal of smaller particles. The image covers a...

The development of the Mars rover Curiosity's capabilities for drilling into a rock on Mars required years of development work.

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....

This heart-shaped granite rock was spotted in JPL's Mars Yard just in time for Valentine's Day. Engineers were driving the Earth-bound copy of the Curiosity rover, informally named Maggie, for tes...

Examination of a calcium sulfate vein called "Diyogha" by the ChemCam instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover found boron, sodium and chlorine. An image from the rover's Mastcam, at left, provide...

This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows details of rock texture and color in an area where the rover's Dust Removal Tool (DRT) brushed away dust that ...

Light-toned nodules and veins are visible in this image from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity of a patch of sedimentary rock called "Knorr."

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After two Martian years, Curiosity is more than a Mars geologist, scientist and explorer. It's a Mars weather reporter, too.