Curiosity Rover

Mission Profile

Curiosity Rover is NASA's car-sized Mars Science Laboratory rover, landed in Gale Crater on 6 August 2012 by the innovative Sky Crane aerial descent system delivered aboard an Atlas V 541. Equipped with 10 science instruments including ChemCam laser spectrometer, SAM mass spectrometer, and DAN neutron spectrometer, Curiosity has driven over 30 km of the Martian surface and conducted an unprecedented chemical survey of ancient lake bed sediments. The mission's primary discovery was that Gale Crater once hosted a lake with neutral pH water and organic compounds — conditions that could have supported microbial life — for hundreds of millions to a billion years in Mars's ancient past. Curiosity continues driving in 2026, climbing the slopes of Mount Sharp to study how Mars's ancient habitability evolved over geological time.