Driving Over Sandy Ripples

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

Curiosity's Rear View, Linearized

This image shows the target landing area for Curiosity, the rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recorded this sequence of views of the sun setting at the close of the mission's 956th Martian day, or sol (April 15, 2015), from the rover's location in Gale Crater.

This sequence of images shows the heat shield from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory hitting the ground on Mars and raising a cloud of dust. The images were taken by the Mars Descent Imager on the mis...

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

This mosaic of images shows a boulder-sized rock called "Strathdon," which is made up of many complex layers. NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took these images using its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on Jul...

This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows the patch of rock cleaned by the first use of the rover's Dust Removal Tool (DRT).

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 ...

A NASA Dryden Flight Research Center F/A-18 852 aircraft performs a roll during a dive toward Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., during June 2011 flight tests of a Mars landing radar.

This image from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows a portion of the pale rock outcrop that includes the "Bonanza King" target chosen for evaluation as the mission's four...

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...

This animation depicts movements of the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity as commanded for Aug. 20, 2012, the first time the arm was used on Mars. The animation is derived from visualizati...

This engineering drawing shows the arm on NASA's Curiosity's rover in its "ready- for-action" position, or "ready out" as engineers say, in addition to the position it assumes to drop off samples.

This stereo view from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows a rock called "Link," which bears rounded pebbles that provide evidence about vigorous flow of water in a stream on ancient Mars.

NASA scientists and engineers prepare Mars Curiosity rover for its first scoop of soil for analysis.The rover's ability to put soil samples into analytical instruments is central to assessing wheth...

At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians process the backshell for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).

Testing of Mars Landing Radar near Lancaster, Calif.

A group of engineers and technicians prepare to mate the rover (tucked inside its backshell and turned upside-down on the left) to its protective heatshield, the black disk on the right.

The relationship between charged-particle radiation dose measured with silicon sensors and the dose that biological tissue would receive in the same setting is assessed as a function of how much en...

This 360-degree panorama shows the "Marias Pass" area, at center, and part of the slope that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover climbed to get there, at right.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, Curiosity, is prepared for final integration into the complete NASA spacecraft in this photograph taken inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility ...

This mosaic shows the calibration target for the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover, as seen by the ChemCam's remote micro-imager. The images were taken on Aug. 15,...

This image shows where NASA's Curiosity rover aimed two different instruments to study a pyramid-shaped rock known as "Jake Matijevic."

This map shows in red the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the "Bradbury Landing" location where it landed in August 2012 to nearly the completion of its first Martian year. The whi...