NASA · rover active
Curiosity (MSL)
NASA's Curiosity rover has explored Gale Crater since 2012, showing that ancient Mars had lakes able to support microbes.
- Launch
- 26 November 2011
- Distance from Earth today
- 213.1 million km1.424 AU · light: 11 min 51 s
- Distance from the Sun today
- 238.7 million km1.595 AU
The spacecraft is at Mars.
Trajectory
Trajectory: JPL Horizons vectors (spacecraft -76) every 1 days, projected onto the ecliptic; compressed distance scale.
Mission timeline
- Launch on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral
- Sky-crane landing in Gale Crater
- NASA announces Gale Crater was once habitable
- Reaches the base of Mount Sharp
Targets: Mars
About the mission
Curiosity, the rover of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, was lowered onto the floor of Gale Crater in August 2012 by a rocket-powered sky crane, a landing technique used for the first time. Within months it drilled into mudstone that formed at the bottom of an old lake and showed that the water there had once been suitable for microbial life. Since 2014 it has been climbing the layered slopes of Mount Sharp, reading the rocks like pages of a history book about how Mars dried out. Powered by a nuclear generator, it keeps driving more than a decade after landing.
Landing sites
Texture: Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0) · names: IAU/USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
| Body | Site | Date | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mars | Bradbury Landing, Gale Crater | 6 August 2012 | 4.590° S, 137.442° E |
Sources
- science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity/
- nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=2011-070A
- ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND=%27-76%27&OBJ_DATA=%27YES%27&MAKE_EPHEM=%27NO%27
- mars.nasa.gov/mmgis-maps/MSL/Layers/json/MSL_waypoints.json
- Trajectory: JPL Horizons (public domain)