Mars Science Laboratory

The Mars Science Laboratory mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort for the robotic exploration of Mars that is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology.

On June 10, 2018, Opportunity rover fell silent, leaving Curiosity of the Mars Science Laboratory mission with six orbiters surveying the planet: Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Orbiter Mission, MAVEN, and the Trace Gas Orbiter, which have contributed massive amounts of information about Mars.

This location is near the mountain Aeolis Mons (a.k.a. "Mount Sharp").

On August 6, 2012, Curiosity (the Mars Science Laboratory rover) landed in "Yellowknife" Quad 51 of Aeolis Palus, next to the mountain.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort for the robotic exploration of Mars that is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology.

Among the laboratory's major active projects are the Mars Science Laboratory mission (which includes the Curiosity rover), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter, the NuSTAR X-ray telescope, the SMAP satellite for earth surface soil moisture monitoring, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Previous successful U.S. Mars rovers include Sojourner from the Mars Pathfinder mission and the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

On January 24, 2014, NASA reported that current studies by the remaining rover Opportunity as well as by the newer Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity will now be searching for evidence of ancient life, including a biosphere based on autotrophic, chemotrophic and/or chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms, as well as ancient water, including fluvio-lacustrine environments (plains related to ancient rivers or lakes) that may have been habitable.

MSL successfully carried out the most accurate Martian landing of any known spacecraft, hitting a small target landing ellipse of only 7 by, in the Aeolis Palus region of Gale Crater.

The NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission landed the Curiosity rover on Aeolis Palus in August 2012.

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.

The NASA Mars rover Curiosity, of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, landed in "Yellowknife" Quad 51 of Aeolis Palus in Gale at 05:32 UTC August 6, 2012.

Curiosity rover has a mass of 899 kg, can travel up to 90 m per hour on its six-wheeled rocker-bogie system, is powered by a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), and communicates in both X band and UHF bands.

The multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) is a type of radioisotope thermoelectric generator developed for NASA space missions such as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Energy's Office of Space and Defense Power Systems within the Office of Nuclear Energy.

About one year into the surface mission, and having assessed that ancient Mars could have been hospitable to microbial life, the MSL mission objectives evolved to developing predictive models for the preservation process of organic compounds and biomolecules; a branch of paleontology called taphonomy.

The overall objectives include investigating Mars' habitability, studying its climate and geology, and collecting data for a human mission to Mars.

In May 2013, NASA scientists reported that a possible mission to Mars may involve great radiation risk based on energetic particle radiation measured by the RAD on the Mars Science Laboratory while traveling from the Earth to Mars in 2011–2012.

By sheer coincidence, exactly 100 years later on 7 August 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory rover used its Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) instrument to begin measuring the radiation levels on another planet for the first time.

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.

Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) is a suite of instruments on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover.

The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is an instrument mounted on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover.

This can communicate with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter (ODY) at speeds up to 2 Mbit/s and 256 kbit/s, respectively, but each orbiter is only able to communicate with Curiosity for about 8 minutes per day.

Mars Science Laboratory, a highly maneuverable rover, also had its landing site inspected.

The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument is an experiment mounted on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover.

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.

Curiosity is a car-sized rover designed to explore the crater Gale on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL).

This can communicate with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter (ODY) at speeds up to 2 Mbit/s and 256 kbit/s, respectively, but each orbiter is only able to communicate with Curiosity for about 8 minutes per day.

It also acts as a relay for communications between the Mars Science Laboratory, and previously the Mars Exploration Rovers and Phoenix lander, to Earth.

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.

, Mars is host to eight functioning spacecraft: six in orbit—2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, Mars Orbiter Mission and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter—and two on the surface—Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity (rover) and InSight (lander).

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.

On November 26, 2011, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission was successfully launched for Mars.

The rover's computers function on VxWorks, a real-time operating system from Wind River Systems.

Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is one of seventeen cameras on the Curiosity rover on the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

It has been used in the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover mission robots Spirit and Opportunity, on the 2012 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission's rover Curiosity, and is slated for use in the Mars 2020 rover.

Over the years several modified versions of this type of instrument such as APS (without X-ray spectrometer) or APXS have been flown: Surveyor 5-7, Mars Pathfinder, Mars 96, Mars Exploration Rover, Phobos, Mars Science Laboratory and the Philae comet lander.

The Curiosity rover from the Mars Science Laboratory mission, with its Curiosity rover is currently assessing the potential past and present habitability of the Martian environment and is attempting to detect biosignatures on the surface of Mars.

Six senior members of the Curiosity team presented a news conference a few hours after landing, they were: John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator; Charles Elachi, director, JPL; Peter Theisinger, MSL project manager; Richard Cook, MSL deputy project manager; Adam Steltzner, MSL entry, descent and landing (EDL) lead; and John Grotzinger, MSL project scientist.

He was the lead engineer of the Mars Science Laboratory EDL phase (Entry, Descent and Landing), and helped design, build and test the sky crane landing system.