Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Flexible Canopy Testing in the Glenn Research Center, 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel

This artist concept is of NASA Mars Science Laboratory MSL Curiosity rover parachute system; the largest parachute ever built to fly on a planetary mission. The parachute is attached to the top of the backshell portion of the spacecraft aeroshell.

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Flexible Canopy Test

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Flexible Canopy Test

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians are preparing a solar array panel for installation to the cruise stage of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). MSL's components include a compact car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rover’s spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. Launch of MSL aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is scheduled for Nov. 25 from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians are installing a solar array panel to the cruise stage of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). MSL's components include a compact car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rover’s spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. Launch of MSL aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is scheduled for Nov. 25 from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians are installing a solar array panel to the cruise stage of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). MSL's components include a compact car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rover’s spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. Launch of MSL aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is scheduled for Nov. 25 from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians are installing a solar array panel to the cruise stage of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). MSL's components include a compact car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rover’s spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. Launch of MSL aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is scheduled for Nov. 25 from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

John Grant, geologist, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, speaks at a Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) press conference at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on Friday, July 22, 2011 in Washington. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), or Curiosity, is scheduled to launch late this year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and land in August 2012. Curiosity is twice as long and more than five times as heavy as previous Mars rovers. The rover will study whether the landing region at Gale crater had favorable environmental conditions for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever existed. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)

Dawn Sumner, geologist, University of California, Davis speaks at a Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) press conference at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on Friday, July 22, 2011 in Washington. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), or Curiosity, is scheduled to launch late this year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and land in August 2012. Curiosity is twice as long and more than five times as heavy as previous Mars rovers. The rover will study whether the landing region at Gale crater had favorable environmental conditions for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever existed. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)

NASA chief scientist, Dr. Waleed Abdalati, speaks at a Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) press conference at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on Friday, July 22, 2011 in Washington. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), or Curiosity, is scheduled to launch late this year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and land in August 2012. Curiosity is twice as long and more than five times as heavy as previous Mars rovers. The rover will study whether the landing region at Gale crater had favorable environmental conditions for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever existed. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Flexible Canopy Test

Mars Science Laboratory, MSL Flexible Canopy Test

Mars Science Laboratory, MSL Flexible Canopy Test

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians process the backshell for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). The backshell carries the parachute and several components used during later stages of entry, descent and landing, and is one part of the spacecraft's heat shield which, when both are integrated is called an aeroshell. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V-541 configuration will be used to loft MSL into space. Curiosity’s 10 science instruments are designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rover’s spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. MSL is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Nov. 25 with a window extending to Dec. 18 and arrival at Mars Aug. 2012. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

John Grotzinger, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project scientist, Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., holds up a model of the MSL, or Curiosity, at a press conference at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on Friday, July 22, 2011 in Washington. The MSL is scheduled to launch late this year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and land in August 2012. Curiosity is twice as long and more than five times as heavy as previous Mars rovers. The rover will study whether the landing region at Gale crater had favorable environmental conditions for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever existed. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)

This low-angle self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the site from which it reached down to drill into a rock target called "Buckskin" on lower Mount Sharp. The selfie combines several component images taken by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on Aug. 5, 2015, during the 1,065th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars. For scale, the rover's wheels are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide. This view is a portion of a larger panorama available at PIA19807. A close look reveals a small rock stuck onto Curiosity's left middle wheel (on the right in this head-on view). The rock had been seen previously during periodic monitoring of wheel condition about three weeks earlier, in the MAHLI raw image at http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=1046MH0002640000400290E01_DXXX&s=1046. MAHLI is mounted at the end of the rover's robotic arm. For this self-portrait, the rover team positioned the camera lower in relation to the rover body than for any previous full self-portrait of Curiosity. This yielded a view that includes the rover's "belly," as in a partial self-portrait (/catalog/PIA16137) taken about five weeks after Curiosity's August 2012 landing inside Mars' Gale Crater. The selfie at Buckskin does not include the rover's robotic arm beyond a portion of the upper arm held nearly vertical from the shoulder joint. With the wrist motions and turret rotations used in pointing the camera for the component images, the arm was positioned out of the shot in the frames or portions of frames used in this mosaic. This process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites "Rocknest" (PIA16468), "John Klein" (PIA16937), "Windjana" (PIA18390) and "Mojave" (PIA19142). MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19808

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians process the backshell for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). The backshell carries the parachute and several components used during later stages of entry, descent and landing, and is one part of the spacecraft's heat shield which, when both are integrated is called an aeroshell. MSL's components include a compact car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rover’s spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. Launch of MSL aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is scheduled for Nov. 25 from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Mars Science Laboratory, MSL Flexible Canopy Test in the Glenn Research Center, 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel

Mars Science Laboratory, MSL Flexible Canopy Test in the Glenn Research Center, 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel

Mars Science Laboratory, MSL Flexible Canopy Test in the Glenn Research Center, 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel

Mars Science Laboratory, MSL Flexible Canopy Test in the Glenn Research Center, 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel

Mars Science Laboratory, MSL Flexible Canopy Test in the Glenn Research Center, 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel

Large-scale crossbedding in the sandstone of this ridge on a lower slope of Mars' Mount Sharp is common in petrified sand dunes. The scene combines multiple images taken with both cameras of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Curiosity on Aug. 27, 2015, during the 1,087th Martian day, or sol of the rover's work on Mars. It spans from east, at left, to south-southwest. Figure 1 includes a scale bar of 200 centimeters (about 6.6 feet). Sets of bedding laminations lie at angles to each other. Such crossbedding is common in wind-deposited sandstone of the U.S. Southwest. An example from Utah is pictured at http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/zion/html2/3d153.html. The sandstone in the image from Mars is part of the Stimson unit on Mount Sharp. The color of the Mastcam mosaic has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. The component images in the center and upper portion of the mosaic are from Mastcam's right-eye camera, which is equipped with a 100-millimeter-focal-length telephoto lens. Images used in the foreground and at far left and right were taken with Mastcam's left-eye camera, using a wider-angle, 34-millimeter lens. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates Curiosity's Mastcam. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about Curiosity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl . http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19818

This graphic maps locations of the sites where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected its first 18 rock or soil samples for analysis by laboratory instruments inside the vehicle. It also presents images of the drilled holes where 14 rock-powder samples were acquired. Curiosity scooped two soil samples at each of the other two sites: Rocknest and Gobabeb. The diameter of each drill hole is about 0.6 inch (1.6 centimeters), slightly smaller than a U.S. dime. The images used here are raw color, as recorded by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera. Notice the differences in color of the material at different drilling sites. For the map, north is toward upper left corner. The scale bar represents 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). The base map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The latest sample site included is "Quela,"where Curiosity drilled into bedrock of the Murray formation on Sept. 18, 2016, during the 1,464th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Curiosity landed in August 2012 on the plain (named Aeolis Palus) near Mount Sharp (or Aeolis Mons). More drilling samples collected by MSL are available at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20845

John Grotzinger, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project scientist, Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., answers a reporter's question at a press conference at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on Friday, July 22, 2011 in Washington. The MSL is scheduled to launch late this year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and land in August 2012. Curiosity is twice as long and more than five times as heavy as previous Mars rovers. The rover will study whether the landing region at Gale crater had favorable environmental conditions for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever existed. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)

A replica of NASA's Curiosity Rover and members of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) science team pass the Presidential viewing stand and President Barack Obama during the inaugural parade honoring Obama, Monday Jan. 21, 2013, in Washington. Obama was sworn-in as the nation's 44th President earlier in the day. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

A replica of NASA's Curiosity Rover and members of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) science team pass the Presidential viewing stand and President Barack Obama during the inaugural parade honoring Obama, Monday Jan. 21, 2013, in Washington. Obama was sworn-in as the nation's 44th President earlier in the day. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Michael Watkins (right), mission manager and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) engineer, Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, Calif., speaks at a press conference, as Michael Meyer, Mars Exploration Program lead scientist looks on, at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on Friday, July 22, 2011 in Washington. The MSL, or Curiosity, is scheduled to launch late this year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and land in August 2012. Curiosity is twice as long and more than five times as heavy as previous Mars rovers. The rover will study whether the landing region at Gale crater had favorable environmental conditions for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever existed. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)

This low-angle self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle above the "Buckskin" rock target, where the mission collected its seventh drilled sample. The site is in the "Marias Pass" area of lower Mount Sharp. The scene combines dozens of images taken by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on Aug. 5, 2015, during the 1,065th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars. The 92 component images are among MAHLI Sol 1065 raw images at http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=1065&camera=MAHLI. For scale, the rover's wheels are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide. Curiosity drilled the hole at Buckskin during Sol 1060 (July 30, 2015). Two patches of pale, powdered rock material pulled from Buckskin are visible in this scene, in front of the rover. The patch closer to the rover is where the sample-handling mechanism on Curiosity's robotic arm dumped collected material that did not pass through a sieve in the mechanism. Sieved sample material was delivered to laboratory instruments inside the rover. The patch farther in front of the rover, roughly triangular in shape, shows where fresh tailings spread downhill from the drilling process. The drilled hole, 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter, is at the upper point of the tailings. The rover is facing northeast, looking out over the plains from the crest of a 20-foot (6-meter) hill that it climbed to reach the Marias Pass area. The upper levels of Mount Sharp are visible behind the rover, while Gale Crater's northern rim dominates the horizon on the left and right of the mosaic. A portion of this selfie cropped tighter around the rover is at PIA19808. Another version of the wide view, presented in a projection that shows the horizon as a circle, is at PIA19806. MAHLI is mounted at the end of the rover's robotic arm. For this self-portrait, the rover team positioned the camera lower in relation to the rover body than for any previous full self-portrait of Curiosity. This yielded a view that includes the rover's "belly," as in a partial self-portrait (PIA16137) taken about five weeks after Curiosity's August 2012 landing inside Mars' Gale Crater. Before sending Curiosity the arm-positioning commands for this Buckskin belly panorama, the team previewed the low-angle sequence of camera pointings on a test rover in California. A mosaic from that test is at PIA19810. This selfie at Buckskin does not include the rover's robotic arm beyond a portion of the upper arm held nearly vertical from the shoulder joint. Shadows from the rest of the arm and the turret of tools at the end of the arm are visible on the ground. With the wrist motions and turret rotations used in pointing the camera for the component images, the arm was positioned out of the shot in the frames or portions of frames used in this mosaic. This process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites "Rocknest" (PIA16468), "John Klein" (PIA16937), "Windjana" (PIA18390) and "Mojave" (PIA19142). MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19807

This cluster of small impact craters was spotted by the Context Camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in the region northwest of Gale Crater, the landing site of the Mars Science Laboratory MSL rover, Curiosity.

Michael Watkins (third from left), mission manager and project engineer, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, Calif., speaks at a press conference at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on Friday, July 22, 2011 in Washington. From left to right, Watkins is joined by Dwayne Brown, NASA Headquarters public affairs officer; Michael Meyer, lead scientist Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters; Watkins; John Grant, geologist, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington; Dawn Sumner, geologist, University of California, Davis and John Grotzinger, MSL project scientist, JPL. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)

Mars Science Laboratory, MSL Flexible Canopy Test

Mars Science Laboratory, MSL, Rotor Dynamics Model Analysis

The heat shield for NASA Mars Science Laboratory is the largest ever built for a planetary mission. This image shows the heat shield being prepared at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, in April 2011.

Testing of the cruise stage for NASA Mars Science Laboratory in August 2010 included a session in a facility that simulates the environment found in interplanetary space.

The cruise stage of NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is being prepared for final stacking of the spacecraft in this photograph from inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

This image from July 2008 shows the aeroshell for NASA Mars Science Laboratory while it was being worked on by spacecraft technicians at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company near Denver.

This graphic shows the flux of radiation detected by NASA Mars Science Laboratory on the trip from Earth to Mars; the spikes in radiation levels occurred because of large solar energetic particle events caused by giant flares on the sun.

In the clean room at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, engineers gather around the base of Curiosity neck the Mast as they slowly lower it into place for attachment to the rover body the Wet Electronics Box, or WEB.

Testing during March and April 2009 inside the world largest wind tunnel, at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., qualified the parachute for NASA next Mars rover. The parachute for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, to be launched in 2011 and land on Mars in 2012, is the largest ever built to fly on an extraterrestrial mission. This image shows the qualification-test parachute beginning to open a few seconds after it was launched from a mortar into an 80-mile-per-hour (36-meter-per-second) wind. The parachute uses a configuration called disk-gap-band. It has 80 suspension lines, measures more than 50 meters (165 feet) in length, and opens to a diameter of nearly 16 meters (51 feet). Most of the orange and white fabric is nylon, though a small disk of heavier polyester is used near the vent in the apex of the canopy due to higher stresses there. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11993

Researchers prepare for a test of the Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument that will fly on NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission; researchers are preparing the instrument mast unit for a laser firing test.

The team developing NASA Mars Science Laboratory calls this test rover Scarecrow because the vehicle does not include a computer brain. Mobility engineers use this test rover to evaluate mobility and suspension performance.

This frame from a video shows the mast of NASA Curiosity rover deploying in a pre-launch test.

In this photograph, technicians and engineers inside a clean room at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., position NASA Sample Analysis at Mars SAM above the mission Mars rover, Curiosity, for installing the instrument.

In this picture, the Curiosity rover sports a set of six new wheels. The wheels were installed on June 28 and 29 in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The descent stage of NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is being lifted during assembly of the spacecraft in this photograph taken inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

This photograph shows the Vehicle System Test Bed VSTB rover, a nearly identical copy to NASA Curiosity rover on Mars.

This image taken March 25, 2010 shows preparations for radar testing for NASA Mars Science Laboratory. This day work evaluated a setup for suspending a rover mock-up beneath a helicopter at Hawthorne Municipal Airport, Hawthorne, Calif.

The ChemCam instrument for NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission uses a pulsed laser beam to vaporize a pinhead-size target, producing a flash of light from the ionized material plasma that can be analyzed to identify chemical elements in the target.

This photograph of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, was taken during mobility testing on June 3, 2011. The location is inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Right-eye view of NASA Curiosity rover and its powered descent vehicle pose for photographs prior to being integrated for launch at JPL Spacecraft Assembly Facility.

This artist concept shows the sky crane maneuver during the descent of NASA Curiosity rover to the Martian surface. The sheer size of the rover over one ton, or 900 kilograms would preclude it from taking advantage of an airbag-assisted landing.

In the middle of this image taken at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the long robotic arm of NASA Mars Science Laboratory is bent at nearly a 90-degree angle.

Test operators monitor how NASA Mars rover Curiosity handles driving over a ramp during a test on Sept. 10, 2010, inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

This animation demonstrates how streams may have flowed from Mount Sharp to the floor of Gale Crater, where salty ponds may have been left behind as the region dried out over time. Rocks enriched with mineral salts discovered by NASA's Curiosity at a location on Mount Sharp called "Sutton Island" suggest that water vanished slowly, rather than all at once, possibly returning to the area in a persistent cycle of drying and overflow. This discovery serves as a watermark for when the Martian climate was gradually getting drier. Animation available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23375

This is an artist concept of NASA Mars Science Laboratory aeroshell capsule as it enters the Martian atmosphere. The Curiosity rover and the spacecraft descent stage are safely tucked inside the aeroshell at this point.

This diagram presents some of the processes and clues related to a long-ago lake on Mars that became stratified, with the shallow water richer in oxidants than deeper water was. The sedimentary rocks deposited within a lake in Mars' Gale Crater more than three billion years ago differ from each other in a pattern that matches what is seen in lakes on Earth. As sediment-bearing water flows into a lake, bedding thickness and particle size progressively decrease as sediment is deposited in deeper and deeper water as seen in examples of thick beds (PIA19074) from shallowest water, thin beds (PIA19075) from deeper water and even thinner beds (PIA19828) from deepest water. At sites on lower Mount Sharp, inside the crater, measurements of chemical and mineral composition by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover reveal a clear correspondence between the physical characteristics of sedimentary rock from different parts of the lake and how strongly oxidized the sediments were. Rocks with textures indicating that the sediments were deposited near the edge of a lake have more strongly oxidized composition than rocks with textures indicating sedimentation in deep water. For example, the iron mineral hematite is more oxidized than the iron mineral magnetite. An explanation for why such chemical stratification occurs in a lake is that the water closer to the surface is more exposed to oxidizing effects of oxygen in the atmosphere and ultraviolet light. On Earth, a stratified lake with a distinct boundary between oxidant-rich shallows and oxidant-poor depths provides a diversity of environments suited to different types of microbes. If Mars has ever hosted microbial live, the stratified lake at Gale Crater may have similarly provided a range of different habitats for life. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21500

This stereo image of NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rovert was taken May 26, 2011, in Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

Engineers from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Alliance Spacesystems are testing the range of motion of the Mars Science Laboratory rover’s robotic arm joints.

The two main parts of the ChemCam laser instrument for NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission are shown in this combined image.

Technicians at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, prepare the heat shield for NASA Mars Science Laboratory. With a diameter of 4.5 meters nearly 15 feet, this heat shield is the largest ever built for a planetary mission.

This set of views illustrates capabilities of the Mast Camera MastCam instrument on NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, using a scene on Earth as an example of what MastCam two cameras can see from different distances.

A NASA Dryden Flight Research Center F/A-18 852 aircraft makes a 40-degree dive during June 2011 flight tests of a Mars landing radar. A test model of the landing radar for NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission is inside a pod under the left wing.

NASA next Mars rover, Curiosity, drives up a ramp during a test at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The rover, like its smaller predecessors already on Mars, uses a rocker bogie suspension system to drive over uneven ground.

This photograph of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, was taken during mobility testing on June 3, 2011. The location is inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

A section of NASA Mars Science Laboratory Gale Crater landing site is shown, with a representative path from the landing location toward the layered mound to the south.

Two instruments at the end of the robotic arm on NASA Mars rover Curiosity will use calibration targets attached to a shoulder joint of the arm. The penny is a size reference giving the public a familiar object for perceiving size on Mars easily.

Spacecraft specialists test the descent stage and rover of the Mars Science Laboratory in this scene from the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

NASA Curiosity rover and its rocket-powered descent vehicle pose for a portrait at JPL Spacecraft Assembly Facility prior to its launch on November 26, 2011 from the Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Camera and robotic-arm maneuvers for taking a self-portrait of the NASA Curiosity rover on Mars were checked first, at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using the main test rover for the Curiosity.

Members of NASA Mars Science Laboratory team carefully steer the hoisted Chemistry and Mineralogy CheMin instrument during its June 15, 2010, installation into the mission Mars rover, Curiosity.

This illustration based on results from Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM, instrument on NASA Curiosity rover shows the locations and interactions of volatiles on Mars.

Curiosity eyes the Mastcam are shrouded in a silvery material, awaiting their first look around the clean room at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the rover is being built.

This artist concept features NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars past or present ability to sustain microbial life.

This artist concept depicts Curiosity, the rover to be launched in 2011 by NASA Mars Science Laboratory, as it is being lowered by the mission rocket-powered descent stage during a critical moment of the ky crane landing in 2012.

This photograph shows the Vehicle System Test Bed VSTB rover, a nearly identical copy to NASA Curiosity rover on Mars.

NASA Mars Science Laboratory, a mobile robot for investigating Mars past or present ability to sustain microbial life, is in development for a launch opportunity in 2011 previously 2009.

The Mars Hand Lens Imager MAHLI camera at the end of the robotic arm of NASA Curiosity rover will use a calibration target attached to a shoulder joint of the arm.

In this photograph, technicians and engineers inside a clean room at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., position NASA Sample Analysis at Mars SAM above the mission Mars rover, Curiosity, for installing the instrument.

This image provides a way to have a full-size printout of the calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager MAHLI camera on NASA Mars rover Curiosity.

This chart illustrates how NASA Curiosity rover talks to Earth. While the rover can send direct messages, it communicates more efficiently with the help of spacecraft in orbit, including NASA Odyssey and MRO, and European Space Agency Mars Express.

Testing of the robotic arm on NASA Mars rover Curiosity on Sept. 3, 2010, included movements of the arm while the rover was on a table tilted to 20 degrees to simulate a sloped surface on Mars.

This image, taken April 9, 2010, shows a helicopter carrying an engineering test model of the landing radar for NASA Mars Science Laboratory over a patch of desert with abundant California poppies.

A group of members from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory watch the motions of an engineering model of the camera mast for NASA Mars rover Curiosity on March 5, 2010.

Testing during March and April 2009 inside the world largest wind tunnel, at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., qualified the parachute for NASA next Mars rover. The parachute for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, to be launched in 2011 and land on Mars in 2012, is the largest ever built to fly on an extraterrestrial mission. This image shows the qualification-test parachute beginning to open a few seconds after it was launched from a mortar into an 80-mile-per-hour (36-meter-per-second) wind. The parachute uses a configuration called disk-gap-band. It has 80 suspension lines, measures more than 50 meters (165 feet) in length, and opens to a diameter of nearly 16 meters (51 feet). Most of the orange and white fabric is nylon, though a small disk of heavier polyester is used near the vent in the apex of the canopy due to higher stresses there. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11992

This drawing of the Mars Science Laboratory mission rover, Curiosity, indicates the location of science instruments and some other tools on the car-size rover.

Technicians and engineers in clean-room garb monitor the first drive test of NASA Curiosity rover, on July 23, 2010. Technicians and engineers conducted the drive test at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The Lincoln penny in this photograph is part of a camera calibration target attached to NASA Mars rover Curiosity.

This image shows preparation for March 2011 testing of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, in a space-simulation chamber; the rover will go through operational sequences in environmental conditions similar to what it will experience on Mars.

This artist concept depicts the interaction of NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft with the upper atmosphere of Mars during the entry, descent and landing of the Curiosity rover onto the Martian surface.

This is an artist concept of NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft approaching Mars. The Curiosity rover is safely tucked inside the spacecraft aeroshell.

Grad student Nicholas Boyd left and Principal Investigator Ralf Gellert, both of the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, prepare for the installation of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer sensor head during testing at NASA JPL.

The engineering test model for the radar system that will be used during the next landing on Mars is shown here mounted onto a helicopter nose gimbal during a May 12, 2010, test at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.

The powered descent vehicle of NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is being prepared for final integration into the spacecraft back shell in this photograph from inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

A sampling pit exposing clay-bearing lake sediments, deposited in a basaltic basin in southern Australia -- a modern terrestrial analog to the Yellowknife Bay area that NASA Curiosity rover is exploring.

NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission team members ran mobility tests on the test rover called Scarecrow on sand dunes near Death Valley, Ca. in early May 2012 in preparation for operating the Curiosity rover, currently en route to Mars.

This photograph of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, was taken during mobility testing on June 3, 2011. The location is inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

This image from August 2008 shows NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover in the course of its assembly, before additions of its arm, mast, laboratory instruments and other equipment.

This image shows the approximate true position of NASA Curiosity rover on Mars. A 3-D virtual model of Curiosity is shown inside Gale Crater, near Mount Sharp, Curiosity ultimate destination.