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Mars Rover Curiosity: Communications Plan
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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.
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Mars Rover Curiosity: JPL Mission Control
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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.
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Mars Rover Curiosity's Landing Peanuts
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.
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Earth vs. Mars: The Mars Mission Scoreboard
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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.
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Curiosity Mars Rover's Namesake
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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.
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Mars Rover Heat Shield Explained
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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]
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Cameras on Mars Rover Curiosity
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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.
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Mars Rover Curiosity Landing: T-shirt Brigade
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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
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Mars Rover Curiosity Landing: NASA Social
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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.
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Mars Rover Curiosity Landing: NASA Social
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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.
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Mars Rover Curiosity: Landing Weather Map for
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
This global map of Mars was acquired on Aug. 2, 2012, by the Mars Color Imager instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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Stephen Colbert on Mars Rover Landing
Credit: Comedy Central
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.
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Gale Crater, Landing Site of Curiosity Rover (Infographic)
Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Contributor
The mountain-climbing rover heads for Mount Sharp, rising 3 miles (5 kilometers) above Gale Crater.
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Gale Crater: Target for Curiosity Mars Rover
Credit: DLR
Gale Crater: Target for Curiosity Mars rover.
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Mars Rover Landing Video Game Screenshot #7
Credit: Microsoft/Smoking Gun Interactive
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.
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Mars Rover Chief John Grotzinger
Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi
Curiosity project scientist John Grotzinger, a geologist at Caltech in Pasadena, holds up a model of the rover at a press conference at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on July 22, 2011 in Washington.
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Rover to Land on Mars by Sky Crane (Infographic)
Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Contributor
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.
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Huge Mars Robot Armed With Laser, Cameras, Curiosity (Infographic)
Credit: karl Tate, SPACE.com
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.
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Artist's Conception of Curiosity Mars Rover
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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.
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Curiosity Rover Lands
Credit: NASA
This illustration depicts the moment immediately after the Curiosity rover touches down on the Red Planet.
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Curiosity in Cruise
Credit: NASA
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.
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Closeup of Curiosity Mars Rover's Landing Site
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS
A closeup view of the foot of Mount Sharp, where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover will land on the night of Aug. 5, 2012.
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Symphony for the Rover
Credit: Symphony for the Rover
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.
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Bolden Presents Medal at Wolf Trap
Credit: NASA/Paul E. Alers
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.
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Dr. Michael Meyer MSL Briefing
Credit: NASA/Paul E. Alers
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.
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Dr. Jim Garvin Talks About Mars
Credit: NASA/Paul E. Alers
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.
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Garvin and Myers at Curiosity Briefing
Credit: NASA/Paul E. Alers
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.
