This artist's still shows how NASA's Curiosity rover will communicate with Earth using two different types of radio signals during its Aug. 5, 2012 landing.
The Mission Support Area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is shown in this panorama, ahead of the Mars rover Curiosity landing. The room will be the hub of activity on Aug. 5, 2012, as mission team members monitor the careful and intricate entry, descent and landing Curiosity on Mars.
A bottle of peanuts, labeled in part "dare mighty things," is ready and waiting for the landing of NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars on Aug. 5, 2012. The peanuts are part of a long-standing tradition at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
This artist's scoreboard displays a fictional game between Mars and Earth, with Mars in the lead. It refers to the success rate of sending missions to Mars, both as orbiters and landers. Of the previous 39 missions targeted for Mars from around the world, 15 have been successes and 24 failures. For baseball fans, that's a batting average of .385.
Participants at a NASA Social listen as 15-year-old Clara Ma, who at age 12 won the essay contest to name the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, reads her winning essay as part of a NASA Social to preview the landing of the rover on Aug. 3, 2012 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Adam Steltzner, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory entry, descent and landing phase lead, holds a model of the spacecraft during a briefing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Aug. 2, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif. The spacecraft will land the 1-ton rover Curiosity on Mars on Aug. 5 PDT. [Related Photos: Mars Rover Nears Red Planet]
This graphic shows the locations of the 17 cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover. The rover's mast features seven cameras. There is one camera on the end of a robotic and nine cameras hard-mounted to the rover, eight for navigation and one for descent imagery.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory intern Payam Banazadeh walks to lunch wearing a Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover t-shirt that was given to all of the JPL interns on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif. Curiosity is due to land on Mars at 10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5, 2012
Ashwin Vasavada, Deputy Project Scientist for Mars Science Laboratory, talks during a NASA Social held to preview the Curiosity rover's landing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Aug. 3, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif.
Mars rover landing engineers Adam Steltzner, second from left, Steve Lee and Anita Sangupta, right give a briefing during a NASA Social held to preview the landing of the MSL Curiosity rover at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif.
This global map of Mars was acquired on Aug. 2, 2012, by the Mars Color Imager instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
TV comedian Stephen Colbert discusses NASA's Mars rover Curiosity landing with astronaut John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science missions, in this still of a Comedy Central broadcast on Aug. 1, 2012.
The mountain-climbing rover heads for Mount Sharp, rising 3 miles (5 kilometers) above Gale Crater.
Gale Crater: Target for Curiosity Mars rover.
A screenshot from the new "Mars Rover Landing " game for Xbox Live simulates the landing of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission on Mars. The game allows players to use the Kinect motion sensor on the Xbox 360 console to land NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars.
John Grotzinger, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project scientist, Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., holds up a model of the MSL, or Curiosity, at a press conference at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on July 22, 2011 in Washington.
Curiosity, the latest wheeled vehicle to be sent to explore Mars, is the size of a small car and will use a unique method of landing on the Red Planet.
The nuclear-powered mobile science laboratory Curiosity is to rove across the surface of Mars for years, searching for the conditions that may have once made Mars an abode of life.
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.
This illustration depicts the moment immediately after the Curiosity rover touches down on the Red Planet.
This artist's impression shows the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft after its cruise stage has been jettisoned, roughly 10 minutes before it enters the atmosphere of Mars.
A closeup view of the foot of Mount Sharp, where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover will land on the night of Aug. 5, 2012.
An image of the Mars rover Curiosity is seen on a giant screen as Emil de Cou conducts the National Symphony Orchestra during a performance entitled "The Planets--An HD Odyessy," Friday evening, July 27, 2012, at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Va.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, left, presents a medal to Emil de Cou, conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, during a performance entitled "The Planets--An HD Odyessy," Friday evening, July 27, 2012, at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Va.
Dr. Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration program at NASA Headquarters, talks about Mars and the upcoming landing of the rover Curiosity during a briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington, Friday, July 27, 2012, in Washington. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, launched in November 2011, is scheduled to reach the planet on Aug. 5. Curiosity will carry the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars’ surface, a payload more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier Mars rovers.
Dr. Jim Garvin, chief scientist for the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at Goddard Spaceflight Center, talks about Mars and the upcoming landing of the rover Curiosity during a briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington, Friday, July 27, 2012, in Washington. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, launched in November 2011, is scheduled to reach the planet on Aug. 5. Curiosity will carry the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars’ surface, a payload more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier Mars rovers.
Dr. Jim Garvin, chief scientist for the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at Goddard Spaceflight Center, left and Dr. Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration program at NASA Headquarters, talk about Mars and the upcoming landing of the rover Curiosity during a briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington, Friday, July 27, 2012, in Washington. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, launched in November 2011, is scheduled to reach the planet on Aug. 5. Curiosity will carry the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars’ surface, a payload more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier Mars rovers.
