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 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 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

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)

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)

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)

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

NASA Sample Analysis at Mars SAM instrument, largest of the 10 science instruments for NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission, will examine samples of Martian rocks, soil and atmosphere for information about chemicals that are important to life.

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.

At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the back shell powered descent vehicle configuration of NASA Mars Science Laboratory is being rotated for final closeout actions.

The Radiation Assessment Detector, shown prior to its September 2010 installation onto NASA Mars rover Curiosity, will aid future human missions to Mars by providing information about the radiation environment on Mars and on the way to Mars.

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.

This artist conception of NASA Mars Science Laboratory portrays use of the rover ChemCam instrument to identify the chemical composition of a rock sample on the surface of Mars.

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.

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 artist concept depicts the moment immediately after NASA Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface. The spacecraft has detected touchdown, and pyrotechnic cutters have severed connections between rover and spacecraft descent stage.

The Mast Camera Mastcam instrument for NASA Mars Science Laboratory will use a side-by side pair of cameras for examining terrain around the mission rover, Curiosity. The Mastcam 100 offers telephoto capability.

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.

In the middle of this image, three wheels are shown raised by a lift, with engineers on both sides of the wheels in the cleanroom, where NASA Curiosity rover is being assembled.

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.

At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, and the spacecraft descent stage have been enclosed inside the spacecraft aeroshell.

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.

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.

This frame from an animation shows the location of a set of Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the back of NASA Curiosity rover.

President Barack Obama talks on the phone with NASA Curiosity Mars rover team aboard Air Force One during a flight to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Aug. 13, 2012. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

A pocketknife provides scale for this image of the Mars Descent Imager camera; the camera will fly on the Curiosity rover of NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., supplied the camera for the mission.

In the middle of this image taken at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the long robotic arm of NASA Mars Science Laboratory rises straight up toward the ceiling of the lab where it is being tested.

Left-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.

The Sample Analysis at Mars SAM instrument will analyze samples of Martian rock and soil collected by the rover arm to assess carbon chemistry through a search for organic compounds, and to look for clues about planetary change.

This image was taken in the cleanroom where NASA Curiosity rover is being assembled. It shows the rover, which is about the size of an SUV, hoisted on a white lift, with its black wheels suspended in the air.

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.

An in-flight camera check produced this out-of-focus image when NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft turned on illumination sources that are part of the Curiosity rover Mars Hand Lens Imager MAHLI instrument.

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. Spacecraft technicians at JPL prepare a space-simulation test.

During final stacking of NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, the heat shield is positioned for integration with the rest of the spacecraft in this photograph from inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

Employees at Space Launch Complex 41 of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., keep watch as the payload fairing containing NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is lifted up the side of the Vertical Integration Facility on Nov. 3, 2011.

This image, taken April 9, 2010, shows the test radar affixed to a gimbal mounting at the front of a helicopter, carrying an engineering test model of the landing radar for NASA Mars Science Laboratory.

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 is a still from an interactive web feature that guides you through the entry, descent and landing of NASA Curiosity rover.

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.

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 artist concept is of the Atlas V541 launch vehicle that will carry NASA Curiosity rover on its way to Mars. The Atlas V 541 vehicle was selected as it has the right liftoff capability for heavy weight requirements of the rover and its spacecraft.

At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the back shell powered descent vehicle configuration, containing NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, is being placed on the spacecraft heat shield.

This set of artist concepts shows NASA Mars Science Laboratory cruise capsule and NASA Orion spacecraft, which is being built now at NASA Johnson Space Center and will one day send astronauts to Mars.

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.

New results from the Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM, instrument on NASA Curiosity rover detected about 2,000 times as much argon-40 as argon-36, which weighs less, confirming the connection between Mars and Martian meteorites found on Earth.

This wide-angle view shows the High Bay 1 cleanroom inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Specialists are working on components of NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft.

During pre-flight testing in March 2011, the Mars Hand Lens Imager MAHLI camera on NASA Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the MAHLI calibration target under illumination from MAHLI two ultraviolet LEDs light emitting diodes.

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.

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.

A test operator in clean-room garb holds umbilical cables for NASA Mars rover Curiosity during the rover first drive test, on July 23, 2010. NASA will launch Curiosity in late 2011 for arrival at Mars in August 2012.

A NASA Dryden Flight Research Center F/A-18 852 aircraft performs a roll 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 aircraft left wing.

An instrument suite that will analyze the chemical ingredients in samples of Martian atmosphere, rocks and soil during the mission of NASA Mars rover Curiosity, is shown here during assembly at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., in 2010.

These three images show the progression of tacking NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover and its descent stage in one of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s clean room.

With the wheels and suspension system already installed onto one side of NASA Mars rover Curiosity the previous day, spacecraft engineers and technicians prepare the other side mobility subsystem for installation on June 29, 2010.

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.

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

In the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41, the payload fairing containing NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft was attached to its Atlas V rocket on Nov. 3, 2011.

The remote sensing mast on NASA Mars rover Curiosity holds two science instruments for studying the rover surroundings and two stereo navigation cameras for use in driving the rover and planning rover activities.

This is an artist concept of NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft during its cruise phase between launch and final approach to Mars. The spacecraft includes a disc-shaped cruise stage on the left attached to the aeroshell.

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

This picture shows a lab demonstration of the measurement chamber inside the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, an instrument that is part of the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation on NASA Curiosity rover.

This image provides an example of the type of data collected by the Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument on NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission Curiosity rover.

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.

This graph shows the percentage abundance of five gases in the atmosphere of Mars, as measured by the Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer instrument of the SAM instrument suite onboard Curiosity.

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 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.

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.

This test for the radar system to be used during the August 2012 descent and landing of NASA Mars rover Curiosity mounted an engineering test model of the radar system onto the nose of a helicopter.

The Sample Analysis at Mars SAM instrument for NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission will study chemistry of rocks, soil and air as the mission rover, Curiosity, investigates Gale Crater on Mars.

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

Sunset on Mars catches NASA Mars Science Laboratory in the foreground in this artist concept. The mission is under development for launch in 2009 and a precision landing on Mars in 2010.