Driving Over Sandy Ripples

Standing atop a payload transporter, the Atlas V rocket payload fairing containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft rolls out of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy S...

A rippled linear dune of dark Martian sand, "Nathan Bridges Dune," dominates this full-circle panorama from the Mastcam of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. This dune was one research stop of the missio...

Two 2001 images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter show a dramatic change in the planet's appearance during a dust storm.

This map shows the path on Mars of NASA's Curiosity rover toward Glenelg, an area where three terrains of scientific interest converge.

On Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, lightning masts protect the 197-foot-tall United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket as it leaves behind the safety of the Vertical Integration Facility (...

As of June 2012, the target landing area for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission is the ellipse marked on this image of Gale Crater.

The Laser-Induced Remote Sensing for Chemistry and Micro-Imaging instrument will identify atomic elements in martian rocks. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/J.-L. Lacour, CEA

This video depicts NASA's Curiosity rover observing Mars' two moons, then shows one moon passing in front of the other. (No audio)

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this scene of a drill hole named “Edinburgh.” The images used to create the scene were taken on March 22 and 23, 2020, which...

An etched version of Leonardo da Vinci's self-portrait on the Microchip to be placed aboard NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover.

This oblique view of the lower mound in Gale crater on Mars shows an area of top scientific interest for the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

This set of images from NASA's Curiosity rover shows a patch of rock before and after it was cleaned by Curiosity's Dust Removal Tool (DRT).

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this panorama of a hill nicknamed "Bolivar" and adjacent sand ridges on Aug. 23, the 3,572nd Martian day, or sol, of the mis...

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.

The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the robotic arm of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used electric lights at night on Jan. 22, 2016, to illuminate this postage-stamp-size view of Martian sand...

At the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, technicians use a lifting device to elevate a solid rocket motor (SRM) into an uprigh...

This view of channels on Mars came from NASA's Mariner 9 orbiter. In 1971, Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to enter orbit around Mars.

This map shows the route driven and route planned for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from before reaching "Dingo Gap."

This view of the lower front and underbelly areas of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 34th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on M...

This photograph of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, was taken during testing on June 3, 2011. The location is inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labo...

This two-step animation shows before and after views of a patch of sandstone scrubbed with the Dust Removal Tool, a wire-bristle brush, on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. Both images were taken April ...

The top of the rover's mast faces away in this May 11, 2016, self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, which shows the vehicle at the "Okoruso" drilling site on lower Mount Sharp. The scene is ...

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity carries five cylindrical blocks of organic check material for use in a control experiment if the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory detects any organic com...

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 130th Martian day, or sol, (De...

How will we know if Curiosity has landed safely on the surface of Mars?