Curiosity

Curiosity

Spacecraft· NASAactive

Curiosity — climbing Mount Sharp in Gale crater since 2012.

Open in 3D viewSee Curiosity in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Distance from Sun
1.5 AU
Status
Active
Launched
2011

Mission & specifications

Mission

Operator
NASA
Launched
November 26, 2011
Status
Active

Trajectory

Distance from the Sun
1.5 AU
Distance from Earth
1.9 AU
Distance from Mars
2,455,727 km

Cost & funding

Program cost
$2.50 × 10⁹ USD

Mission

Curiosity is the car-sized, nuclear-powered rover that has spent more than a decade proving Mars was once a habitable world. Formally the Mars Science Laboratory, it launched on 26 November 2011 and reached Mars on 6 August 2012, lowered the final few metres onto the floor of Gale crater by a rocket-powered 'sky crane' — a daring, never-before-flown manoeuvre that became known as the seven minutes of terror. Its task was not to look for life directly but to ask whether Mars could ever have supported it, and within months the answer was yes: drilling into ancient mudstone, Curiosity showed that Gale crater had once held a calm, long-lived lake of fresh water, with all the chemical ingredients life needs. Its onboard laboratory, SAM, went on to detect complex organic molecules preserved in the rock, the seasonal rise and fall of methane in the air, and more recently the largest organic compounds yet found on Mars — long carbon chains of the sort that on Earth come from living things, though here their origin is still unknown. For years the rover has been slowly climbing Mount Sharp, the layered, five-kilometre mountain at the crater's centre, reading its rock strata like the pages of a book to trace how Mars dried from a wet, potentially living world into the frozen desert of today. Worn wheels and a balky drill have been nursed and worked around by its engineers on Earth, and Curiosity continues to climb and drill, laying the scientific groundwork that its successor Perseverance now builds upon.

  1. 2011Launch toward Gale craterLaunch

    An Atlas V sends the Mars Science Laboratory on its cruise to Mars.

  2. 2012Sky-crane landing in Gale craterLanding

    A rocket-powered crane lowers Curiosity to the crater floor after the 'seven minutes of terror'.

  3. 2013An ancient habitable lakeMilestone

    Drilling into mudstone shows Gale once held a long-lived lake of fresh water with the ingredients for life.

  4. 2014Begins the climb of Mount SharpMilestone

    The rover reaches the base of the five-kilometre central mountain to read its layered history.

  5. 2018Organic molecules and seasonal methaneMilestone

    SAM detects complex organics preserved in rock and a seasonal cycle of methane in the air.

  6. 2025Largest organic molecules yet found on MarsMilestone

    Curiosity reports long carbon chains preserved for billions of years — the biggest organics found on Mars so far.

Images

Curiosity's self-portrait at Rocknest, Gale Crater
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
Head of Mast on Mars Rover Curiosity
NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL · NASA Image Library
Curiosity Mars Rover Drilling Into Its Second Rock
NASA/JPL-Caltech · NASA Image Library
Mars Rover Curiosity Raising Turret
NASA/JPL-Caltech · NASA Image Library
Top of Mars Rover Curiosity Remote Sensing Mast
NASA/JPL-Caltech · NASA Image Library
Mars Rover Curiosity in Artist Concept, Tall
NASA/JPL-Caltech · NASA Image Library
Diverse Science Payload on Mars Rover Curiosity
NASA/JPL-Caltech · NASA Image Library
Destination for Mars Rover Curiosity
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS · NASA Image Library

Images from open archives · credit shown per image