Scarecrow Rover Desert Tests

Gale Crater, where the rover Curiosity of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission will land in August 2012, contains a mountain rising from the crater floor.

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...

This grouping of two test rovers and a flight spare provides a graphic comparison of three generations of Mars rovers developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The setting is ...

This panorama from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover was taken on Dec. 19 (Sol 2265). The rover's last drill location on Vera Rubin Ridge is visible, as well as the clay regi...

The reclosable dust cover on Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) was opened for the first time during the 33rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 8, 2012), enabling MA...

This graphic shows the geologic cross-section through lower Mount Sharp on Mars.

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)...

Teachers at the Educator Workshop listen attentively to a demonstration of Microsoft’s Kodu Mars Experience, a software program that allows students to design and create their own computer games.

This image is from a series of test images to calibrate the 34-millimeter Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover. It was taken on Aug. 23, 2012 and looks south-southwest from the rover's landing site.

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.

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 ...

Team members celebrate in JPL's Curiosity Surface Mission Support Area when images are received confirming Curiosity's first drive on Mars on Aug. 22, 2012. (Audio: background sounds and cheering o...

This map shows the route NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took from May into July to complete the most difficult climb of the mission. Starting in “Marker Band Valley” (the darker area at the top center...

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.

This graphic from NASA's Curiosity mission shows close-ups of light-toned veins in rocks in the "Yellowknife Bay" area of Mars together with analyses of their composition.

This view of "Vera Rubin Ridge" from the ChemCam instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows sedimentary layers and fracture-filling mineral deposits. ChemCam's telescopic Remote Micro-Imager t...

This short video clip shows final testing of the mast unit of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument for NASA's Curiosity before it was installed on the rover. An iron pyrite crystal was use...

This color image from NASA's Curiosity rover looks south of the rover's landing site on Mars towards Mount Sharp. This is part of a larger, high-resolution color mosaic made from images obtained by...

This view captures Curiosity's current work area where the rover continues its campaign to study an active sand dune on Mars.

Follow along on a tour of the landing scene of NASA's Curiosity rover in this video made up of images from two NASA orbiters. The movie begins with a global image from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, ...

This map traces where NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drove between landing at a site subsequently named "Bradbury Landing," and the position reached during the mission's 123rd Martian day, or sol, (De...

Curiosity will be a rolling geology lab on Mars. See how engineers take a soil sample using her stunt double.

Mars Science Laboratory team member Jessica Samuels gives a progress report on Curiosity's first days on Mars.

This artist's concept depicts the moment that NASA's Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface.

This simulation shows planned movements of the arm on NASA's Curiosity rover for round one of its robotic arm checkouts, expected to run on Sol 33 (Sept. 8, 2012). This so-called "teach point" che...