News Archive / Tagged: Gale Crater

• Curiosity rover marks seven years of Martian exploration

  Laurel KornfeldAugust 9th, 2019

  Seven years after successfully completing a difficult landing maneuver onto the floor of Mars' Gale Crater, NASA's Curiosity rover continues to make pioneering discoveries on the Red Planet.

• Is Mars undergoing Global Warming? Data from Curiosity suggests it might be

  Laurel KornfeldJune 28th, 2019

  Using its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) tunable laser spectrometer, NASA's Curiosity rover has detected the highest concentration of methane  ever found in the Martian atmosphere, in the Teal Ridge region of Gale Crater.

• Curiosity update: Methane spike confirmed and Martian eclipses observed

  Jim SharkeyApril 7th, 2019

  A methane spike detected by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover in 2013 has been confirmed by researchers reanalyzing data captured by the Mars Express orbiter.

• Curiosity Mars rover experiencing memory problem

  Derek RichardsonSeptember 20th, 2018

  While one NASA team attempts to reconnect with the 14-year-old Opportunity Mars rover following a planet-wide dust storm, engineers for another rover located on the opposite side of the planet are troubleshooting a glitch.

• Panoramic images show Curiosity’s route on Mars since 2012 landing

  Laurel KornfeldFebruary 1st, 2018

  Members of NASA's Curiosity team combined individual photos taken by the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on the northern flank of Mount Sharp to create a panorama that overlooks the many sites the six-wheeled geologist has visited since landing on Mars in 2012.

• Curiosity rover begins climb of ‘Vera Rubin Ridge’

  Jim SharkeySeptember 17th, 2017

  NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has started the steep climb of an iron-oxide bearing ridge on the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp that has long been of interest to researchers. "Vera Rubin Ridge", also known as "Hematite Ridge", was informally named in early 2017 in memory of pioneering astrophysicist Vera Cooper Rubin, whose research provided evidence for the existence of dark matter.

• Curiosity rover detects boron, more evidence of past habitability on Mars

  Jim SharkeyDecember 15th, 2016

  As NASA's "Curiosity" Mars rover climbs the slopes of Mount Sharp, the layered mountain at the center of Gale crater, it is finding patterns of change in rock composition in the mountain's higher, younger layers. The rover has also detected the chemical element Boron for the first time on the surface of Mars.

• Mars Curiosity rover enters, leaves safe mode

  Larry KlaesJuly 8th, 2016

  Just two days before the start of the Fourth of July holiday, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity went into an unexpected safe mode, a state that it had not entered since 2013. According to NASA, the nuclear-powered rover has since resumed communications with Earth and engineers are working to restore Curiosity to its full working capacity.

• Curiosity finishes second Martian year with weather report

  Jim SharkeyMay 14th, 2016

  NASA's Curiosity Mars rover completed its second Martian year at Gale Crater on Wednesday, May 11. The mission's science team commemorated this important milestone by issuing a weather report of the rover's observations of two full cycles of Martian seasons. Having data on at least two seasonal cycles on Mars helps to distinguish seasonal effects from sporadic events.

• Curiosity provides first close-up views of Martian sand dunes

  Jim SharkeyJanuary 7th, 2016

  NASA's Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover is currently in the midst of the first close-up investigations of sand dunes on a planet other than Earth. The rover recently drove around "Namib Dune" – which stands approximately 13 feet high (4 meters) – to observe its face.

• Alien waves on ancient shores: Curiosity confirms lake flourished at Gale Crater

  Joe LatrellOctober 13th, 2015

  The team working with NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover has found the best evidence to date that, billions of years ago, Mars once had lakes that lasted for extended periods of time. This is just the latest discovery concerning the Red Planet's past.

• ‘We’re here!’: Curiosity rover arrives at Mount Sharp on Mars

  Paul Scott AndersonSeptember 13th, 2014

  After a long, and at times risky two-year journey, the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity has reached the base of the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, the primary destination since its landing back in 2012. Mount Sharp is about the same height as Mount Rainier on Earth and sits in the middle of the expansive Gale […]