Scarecrow Rover Desert Tests

An outcrop visible as light-toned streaks in the lower center of this image has been chosen as a place for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity to study for a few days in September 2013.

Download a PDF of Curiosity's Brochure.

A viewpoint on "Vera Rubin Ridge" provided NASA's Curiosity Mars rover this detailed look back over the area where it began its mission inside Gale Crater, plus more-distant features of the crater....

This portion of an image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been annotated to show the relative positions between NASA's Curiosit...

This chart graphs measurements made by the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity against the distance the rover has driven, in meters.

Climbing "Vera Rubin Ridge" provided NASA's Curiosity Mars rover this vista of the interior and rim of Gale Crater, including much of the rover's route since its 2012 landing and features up to abo...

This engineering drawing shows the location of the arm on NASA's Curiosity rover, in addition to the arm's turret, which holds two instruments and three tools.

This view from the Curiosity Mars rover's Mastcam shows a dark mound, called "Ireson Hill," which rises about 16 feet above redder layered outcrop material on lower Mount Sharp, Mars, near a locati...

This oblique, southward-looking view of Gale crater shows the landing site and the mound of layered rocks that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will investigate.

Prominent mineral veins at the "Garden City" site examined by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover vary in thickness and brightness, as seen in this image from Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam). The image c...

In the clean room at JPL, engineers gather around the base of Curiosity's "neck" (the Mast) as they slowly lower it into place for attachment to the rover’s "body" (the Wet Electronics Box, or "WEB").

Enclosed in the protective mesh container known as the "gorilla cage," the multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is lifted up ...

NASA's Curiosity Mars took this image with its Mastcam on Feb. 10, 2019 (Sol 2316). The rover is currently exploring a region of Mount Sharp nicknamed "Glen Torridon" that has lots of clay minerals.

This small ridge, about 3 feet long, appears to resist wind erosion more than the flatter plates around it. Such differences are among the traits NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is examining at selecte...

This 160-degree, stereo view from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is centered southward toward a planned science waypoint at "the Kimberley," with an outcrop of eroded sandstone in the foreground. The ...

This image taken by the Mast Camera (MastCam) on NASA's Curiosity rover highlights the interesting geology of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside Gale Crater, where the rover landed.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover autonomously selects some targets for the laser and telescopic camera of its ChemCam instrument. For example, on-board software analyzed the Navcam image at left, chose ...

Processes in Mars' surface material can explain why particular xenon (Xe) and krypton (Kr) isotopes are more abundant in the Martian atmosphere than expected, as measured by NASA's Curiosity rover....

This cut-out from a color panorama image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover shows the effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground.

This view shows grains of sand where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover was driven into a shallow sand sheet near a large dune. The scene covers an area 1.3 inches wide, imaged by Curiosity's Mars Hand Le...

Satellite news trucks crowd the parking lots at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., on Aug. 5, 2012, in preparation for the Curiosity rover’s landing on Mars.

Delta II rocket lifts off the launch pad with the Phoenix spacecraft onboard.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recorded this view of various rock types at waypoint called "the Kimberley" shortly after arriving at the location on April 2, 2014. The site offers a diversity of rock ...

Beyond a dark sand dune closer to the rover, a Martian dust devil passes in front of the horizon in this sequence of images from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The rover's Navigation Camera made this...

Curiosity's "eyes" (the Mastcam) are shrouded in a silvery material, awaiting their first look around the clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the rover is being built.