Curiosity Rover's 5,000th Day on Mars

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity/

Mars - Namib Dune

Want to explore the surface of Mars?

Thanks to NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Curiosity Mars Rover's mast camera captured a 360-degree view of the surface of Mars.

"This image of the downwind face of Namib Dune on Mars covers 360 degrees, including a portion of Mount Sharp on the horizon. Use the arrows in the top left, or click and drag your cursor or mouse, to move the view up/down and right/left."

Life on Mars!

The first pictures beamed back from the Mars rover Curiousity . . .

Live from Mars!

Mars continues to fascinate.

nasa.gov will live stream the landing of Curiosity, the latest rover built to explore the surface of Mars. Images will be delayed about 14 minutes, allowing the signal to travel 154 millions miles.

Curiousity will land in the planet's Gale Cater at 1:31 am EDT on Monday, August 6.

According to NASA:

"Gale Crater is 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter. Mount Sharp rises about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) above the floor of Gale Crater.

"Stratification on Mount Sharp suggests the mountain is a surviving remnant of an extensive series of deposits that were laid down after a massive impact that excavated Gale Crater more than 3 billion years ago.

"During a prime mission lasting nearly two years after landing, Curiosity will use 10 instruments to investigate whether this area of Mars has ever offered conditions favorable for life, including the chemical ingredients for life."

Curiousity is tricked out with a range of sophisticated gear to search for signs of life and to record and transmit images.

"During a prime mission lasting nearly two years after landing, Curiosity will use 10 instruments to investigate whether this area of Mars has ever offered conditions favorable for life, including the chemical ingredients for life.

"Two pairs of Navigation cameras (Navcams), among the rover's 12 engineering cameras, are the small circular apertures on either side of the head. On the top are the optics of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) investigation, which includes a laser and a telescopic camera. The Mast Camera (MastCam) instrument includes a 100-millimeter-focal-length camera called MastCam-100 or M-100, and a 34-millimeter-focal-length camera called the MastCam-34 or M-34. The two cameras of the MastCam are both scientific and natural color imaging systems. The M-100 looks through a 1.2-inch (3-centimeter) baffle aperture, and the M-34 looks through a 2.1-inch (5.3-centimete) baffle aperture."