Curiosity Rover Celebrates First Anniversary on Mars

by Nathan Eddy

This self-portrait of Curiosity combines 66 exposures taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager during the 177th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars.

Curiosity began its mission with an on-time launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Nov. 26, 2011.

As of June 2012, the target landing area for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission was the ellipse marked on this image of Gale Crater. The ellipse is about 12 miles long and 4 miles wide.

This graphic shows the locations of the cameras on the Curiosity rover. The rover’s mast features seven cameras, there is one camera on the end of a robotic arm and there are nine cameras hard-mounted to the rover.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team in the MSL Mission Support Area reacts after learning that the Curiosity rover has landed safely on Mars, and images start coming into the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012, in Pasadena, Calif.

Curiosity found evidence of an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here, which the science team has named “Hottah” after Hottah Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager on Curiosity shows the patch of rock cleaned by the first use of the rover’s Dust Removal Tool.

This panorama is a mosaic of images taken by the rover’s Mastcam while Curiosity was working at a site called “Rocknest” in October and November 2012.

A rise topped by two gray rocks near the center of the scene is informally named “Twin Cairns Island.” It is about 100 feet from Curiosity’s current position.

Along with this American flag medallion, the other three medallions adorning the rover’s rocker arms are the NASA logo, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory logo and the Curiosity mission logo.