Mars on Earth

This image shows the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on NASA's Curiosity rover, with the Martian landscape in the background.

In this picture, the rover examines a rock on Mars with a set of tools at the end of the rover's arm, which extends about 7 feet (2 meters).

The descent stage of NASA's Mars Sciecnce Laboratory spacecraft is being lifted during assembly of the spacecraft in this photograph taken inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA Ke...

This image shows Curiosity's Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) "war room" and its staff. On the night of Aug. 5, 2012 PDT (early morning Aug. 6 EDT), 34 engineers gathered in this room at NASA's Jet...

This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life.

Curiosity science team member Sanjeev Gupta explains how rounded pebbles spotted by the rover are convincing evidence of an ancient streambed on Mars.

This illustration provides a comparison for how big the moons of Mars appear to be, as seen from the surface of Mars, in relation to the size that Earth's moon appears to be when seen from the surf...

This image from NASA's Curiosity rover looks south of the rover's landing site on Mars towards Mount Sharp.

The sequence of seven images in this animation shows sunspots as viewed by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from June 27 to July 8, 2015. From Mars, the rover was in position to see the opposite side of...

An engineering model for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory makes its way up a hill in the Mars Yard testing area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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...

Meet some of the women team members and hear about the exciting and challenging jobs they do in science and engineering while working with Mars rover Curiosity.

Curiosity's EDL team release a timeline for mission milestones surrounding the landing of the Mars rover.

This graph shows about one-fourth of a Martian year's pattern atmospheric pressure at the surface of Mars, as measured by the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station on NASA's Curiosity rover.

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.

A group of journalists take part in a field trip to learn about the clues hidden in the rock layers with Curiosity Project Scientist, John Grotzinger.

Results from Opportunity and Curiosity show Mars could have supported life.

A "scarecrow" rover at NASA's JPL drives over a sensor while testing a new driving algorithm. Engineers created the algorithm to reduce wheel wear on the Mars Curiosity rover.

This set of images from Mars shows the handiwork of different tools on three missions to the surface of Mars.

A conventional X-ray diffraction instrument (left) is the size of a large refrigerator, in contrast to the compact size of the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover...

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 29th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 4, 2012).

This stereo landscape scene from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows rows of rocks in the foreground and Mount Sharp on the horizon. It appears three dimensional when viewed through red-blue glasses ...

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover examined both the "Greenhorn" and "Big Sky" targets with the rover's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument. Greenhorn is located within an altered fracture...

Unlike previous rovers sent to Mars, Curiosity is a robot chemist seeking evidence of past habitability on Mars.

This picture features some of the women working on the Curiosity rover, taken in the "Mars Yard," a simulated martian landscape right here at JPL.