As NASA’s Curiosity rover recently began climbing up a Martian valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures, each one about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) across. The mission has spotted small patches of these geometric shapes several times […]
Category: Curiosity (Rover)
- Curiosity (Rover)
- Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate
- General
- Human Health and Performance
- Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate
- Human System Risks
- Humans in Space
- Johnson Space Center
- Mars
- Mars 2020
- Mars Campaign Development Division
- Mars Climate Orbiter
- Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)
- Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (OCHMO)
- Perseverance (Rover)
- Sojourner (Rover)
- Spirit (Rover)
- The Human Body in Space
Establishing Crew Exposure Limits of Martian Dust
Background Human exploration of Mars will expose crews to a persistent, fine particulate environment whose physicochemical properties and health implications remain only partly understood. Because no samples of authentic Martian airborne dust have been returned to Earth, NASA must rely on lunar dust toxicology, Martian regolith simulants, and extensive rover/lander geochemical and mineralogical datasets to […]
NASA’s Perseverance, Curiosity Panoramas Capture Two Sides of Mars
NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers have captured two 360-degree landscapes that highlight how the missions are revealing details of the Red Planet’s formation, watery past, and potential for life. Located 2,345 miles (3,775 kilometers) apart from each other on Mars — about the distance from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. — both rovers are exploring […]
NASA’s Curiosity Finds Organic Molecules Never Seen Before on Mars
After years of lab work, the results are in: A rock that NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover drilled and analyzed in 2020 includes the most diverse collection of organic molecules ever found on the Red Planet. Of the 21 carbon-containing molecules identified in the sample, seven of them were detected for the first time on Mars. […]
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Sees Martian ‘Spiderwebs’ Up Close
For about six months, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been exploring a region full of geologic formations called boxwork, low ridges standing roughly 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) tall with sandy hollows in between. Crisscrossing the surface for miles, the formations suggest ancient groundwater flowed on this part of the Red Planet […]
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Sees Martian ‘Spiderwebs’ Up Close
For about six months, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been exploring a region full of geologic formations called boxwork, low ridges standing roughly 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) tall with sandy hollows in between. Crisscrossing the surface for miles, the formations suggest ancient groundwater flowed on this part of the Red Planet […]
Curiosity Sends Holiday Postcard from Mars
Team members working with NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover created this “postcard” by commanding the rover to take images at two times of day on Nov. 18, 2025, spanning periods that occurred on both the 4,722nd and 4,723rd Martian days, or sols, of the mission. The panoramas were captured at 4:15 p.m. on Sol 4,722 and […]