Desolate Landscape

Looking Back at the Crater Rim

This view of a Martian rock called "Rocknest 3" combines four images taken by the right-eye camera of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument, which has a telephoto, 100-millimeter-focal-length lens.

Download a PDF of the Mars Science Laboratory Launch Press Kit.

This 3D view of the calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was assembled from two images taken by that camera during the 34th Martian day, or so...

Mars scientists used images from the Mars Exploration Rovers to help them with their recent simulation 'games' for the Mars Science Laboratory rover. This image from the Spirit rover was used by th...

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Navigation Camera (Navcam) on April 11, 2014, to record this scene of a butte called "Mount Remarkable" and surrounding outcrops at a waypoint called "the Kimbe...

NASA's Curiosity rover takes a short breather on her trek to Glenelg to check out her arm instruments.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity appears as a bluish dot near the lower right corner of this enhanced-color view from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on...

The heat shield for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory is the largest ever built for a planetary mission.

This image from the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows detailed texture of a rock target called "Elk" on Mars' Mount Sharp, revealing laminations that ar...

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...

Patches of Martian sandstone visible in the lower-left and upper portions of this view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover have a knobbly texture due to nodules apparently...

This is the first 360-degree panorama in color of the Gale Crater landing site taken by NASA's Curiosity rover. The panorama was made from thumbnail versions of images taken by the Mast Camera.

These three versions of the same image taken by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity illustrate different choices that scientists can make in presenting the colors recorded by t...

This graphic shows proportions of minerals identified by the Curiosity Mars rover's CheMin instrument in mudstone outcrops at "Yellowknife Bay" in 2013 and at "Murray Buttes" in 2016. For example, ...

Onlookers watch as Scarecrow, a mobility-testing model for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, easily conquers boulders in the Mars Yard testing area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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 ...

This image taken by NASA's Curiosity shows what lies ahead for the rover -- its main science target, Mount Sharp.

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars in its approach to and April 1, 2014, arrival at a waypoint called "the Kimberley," which rover team scientists chose in 2013 as the locatio...

This image shows the location of the 150-micrometer sieve screen on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, a device used to remove larger particles from samples before delivery to science instruments.

At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians, using an overhead crane, separate the two components of the aeroshell, an element of NASA's Mars ...

This GIF shows clouds drifting over Mount Sharp on Mars, as viewed by NASA’s Curiosity rover on March 19, 2021, the 3,063rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Each frame of the scene was stitched...

This image shows a close-up of track marks from the first test drive of NASA's Curiosity rover. The rover's arm is visible in the foreground.

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...

This image of the northwestern portion of Mars' Gale Crater and terrain north of it, from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, provides a locator map for some features visible in an Oc...