Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

Mission overview

Mars Science Laboratory delivered the car-sized Curiosity rover to Gale crater to assess Mars's past habitability.

Outcome & discoveries

Confirmed Gale crater once hosted a habitable lake environment and detected organic molecules.

• ★Ancient habitable lake environment in Gale crater
• ★Organic molecules and seasonal methane in the Martian atmosphere

Mission profile

Spacecraft

Scientific instruments

• ChemCamElemental composition of rocks via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy
• Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)Organic molecules and atmospheric and isotopic composition

Knowledge connections

• Operated byNASA
• Mission targetMars
• Operated byNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Mission includesCuriosity
• Part of programMars Exploration Program
• Launched byAtlas V
• Launched fromCape Canaveral Space Force Station
• CapturedCuriosity on Mars — Gale Crater
• Associated withGale Crater
• Associated withCuriosity Lands on Mars

Related missions

Sources

Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.

• NASA JPLJet Propulsion Laboratory / Solar System Dynamics

  Orbital data, ephemerides, and small-body parameters for planets, asteroids, and comets.