Sandy Dunes

NASA’s Curiosity used its Mastcam to capture this impact crater in a location nicknamed “Jau” on July 25, the 3,899th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This was one of dozens of impact craters C...

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., will analyze samples of material collected by the rover's arm.

How do you prepare to land a one-ton rover lightly on the surface of Mars? Practice!

This image shows the cells that hold the soil samples that are vibrated by the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

Scientists have now named the four marks near NASA's Curiosity rover where blasts from the descent stage rocket engines blew away some of the Martian surface material.

This image from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows inclined layering known as cross-bedding in an outcrop called "Shaler" on a scale of a few tenths of meters, or decime...

This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows a site with a network of prominent mineral veins below a cap rock ridge on lower Mount Sharp.

Scientists and engineers scour the Dumont Dunes area and look for the best spot to practice driving with the Scarecrow rover.

This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam,

This self-portrait shows the deck of NASA's Curiosity rover from the rover's Navigation camera.

The series of nine images making up this animation were taken by the rear Hazard-Avoidance Camera (rear Hazcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover as the rover drove over a dune spanning "Dingo Gap" on...

This image shows a closeup view of the two pairs of camera lenses on a shelf. The left-hand pair are larger than the right-hand pair, go to the hazard avoidance camera, and have a larger, fish-eye ...

This mosaic of images from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows Mount Sharp in a white-balanced color adjustment that makes the sky look overly blue but shows the terrain ...

Climbing "Vera Rubin Ridge" provided NASA's Curiosity Mars rover this vista of the interior and rim of Gale Crater, including much of the rover's route since its 2012 landing and features up to abo...

Large Parachute for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory

Mastcam 34: Shorter Focal-Length Eye of Mast Camera Pair for Mars Rover

Two miniature satellites will be hitching a ride to the Red Planet to get a front row seat for InSight 's landing on Mars.

This image from NASA's Mars Curiosity rover shows the "Amargosa Valley," on the slopes leading up to Mount Sharp on Mars.

Scientists used the ChemCam instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover to examine a Martian rock "shell" about one inch across, embedded in bedrock and with a hollow interior. This graphic combines...

This image shows a dry streambed on an alluvial fan in the Atacama Desert, Chile, revealing the typical patchy, heterogeneous mixture of grain sizes deposited together.

This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows a network of two-tone mineral veins at an area called "Garden City" on lower Mount Sharp.

This simulation shows the first test drive of NASA's Curiosity rover. This tool, called the Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program (RSVP) helps engineers plan the rover's drives, modeling pebbl...

In this photo, two engineers from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Alliance Spacesystems are standing in a white room on either side of the Mars Science Laboratory rover's robotic arm. They are d...

This panorama is a mosaic of images taken by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on the NASA Mars rover Curiosity during the 106th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Nov. 22, 2012).