Driving Over Sandy Ripples

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

This early 2017 look ahead from the Mastcam of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover includes four geological layers to be examined by the mission, and higher reaches of Mount Sharp beyond the planned study ...

The dark, smooth-surfaced rock at the center of this Oct. 30, 2016, image from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover was examined with laser pulses and confirmed to be an iron-ni...

It takes a whole team to operate Curiosity's arm. Pictured here are just a few of the team members who put their "muscle" to work every day to help operate Curiosity's arm on Mars.

This is an artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory aeroshell capsule as it enters the Martian atmosphere.

This video steps viewers through a portion of the choreography needed to land NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. It starts with a computer simulation from NASA's Eyes on the Solar System program and ...

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 ...

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity at JPL, Side View

After more than a year without the use of the Curiosity Mars rover's drill, engineers have devised a workaround and tested it for the first time on the Red Planet.

This video (part 3 of a 4 part series) shows engineers testing a new parachute in the largest wind tunnel on Earth for the Curiosity rover prior to its landing on August 2012.

An instrument suite that will analyze the chemical ingredients in samples of Martian atmosphere, rocks and soil during the mission of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, is shown here during assembly at N...

This May 29, 2015, view of a Martian sandstone target called "Big Arm" covers an area about 1.3 inches wide in detail that shows differing shapes and colors of sand grains in the stone. It is from ...

This Jan. 13, 2015, view from the Mars Hand Lens Imager on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows outcomes of a mini-drill test to assess whether the "Mojave" rock is appropriate for full-depth drilling...

This May 22, 2015, view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the "Marias Pass" area where a lower and older geological unit of mudstone -- the pale zone in the center...

This Sept. 25, 2015, view from the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows a dark sand dune in the middle distance. The rover's examination of dunes on the way toward higher layers of Moun...

The suspension system on NASA Mars rover Curiosity easily accommodates rolling over a ramp in this Sept. 10, 2010, test drive inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labora...

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) to take the images combined into this mosaic of the drill area, called "John Klein."

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 561st Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (March 5, 2014).

This May 25, 2015, view from the Curiosity rover's Mastcam shows a site where two different types of bedrock meet near "Marias Pass" on Mount Sharp. Pale mudstone in the foreground is like bedrock ...

NASA’s Curiosity rover captured this image of rhythmic rock layers with a repetitive pattern in their spacing and thickness. Providing yet another clue to Mars’ ancient past, the pattern might have...

This mosaic of four images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows detailed texture in a ridge that stands higher than surrounding rock.

This computer-generated view based on multiple orbital observations shows Mars' Gale crater as if seen from an aircraft north of the crater.

Musician will.i.am addresses a crowd of students at JPL during an event celebrating the first time in history that a recorded song has been beamed back to Earth from another planet.

This view of grains from a sand dune near Christmas Lake, Ore., was taken by a testing twin of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory.

Scientist Jennifer Eigenbrode used a soil simulant — material that closely resembles material found on the martian surface — to test the effectiveness of a sample-preparation method that was added ...