Spaceflight Insider

News Archive / Tagged: Mount Sharp

  • 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.

  • Curiosity measures gravity of Mount Sharp

    Laurel KornfeldFebruary 3rd, 2019

    NASA's Curiosity rove has measured the gravity on Mount Sharp in much the same way Apollo 17 astronauts measured the Moon's gravity in 1972.

  • 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 team working to resume drilling

    Jim SharkeyOctober 25th, 2017

    Engineers with NASA's Curiosity Mars rover team are working to restore the rover's sample-drilling capability by using new techniques. Use of the drill has been suspended due to a mechanical problem with the arm that first occurred late last year.

  • 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.

  • Curiosity rover begins extended mission

    Jim SharkeyOctober 6th, 2016

    NASA's "Curiosity" Mars rover has started an uphill drive from the scenic "Murray Buttes" area and toward new destinations as part of its two-year mission extension that began on Oct. 1.

  • 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.

  • Update: Curiosity uses arm and resumes journey up Mount Sharp

    Jim SharkeyMarch 14th, 2015

    After remaining still for several days in order to provide engineers a chance to diagnose a transient short circuit in its drill, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity is once again on the move. On Wednesday, March 11, Curiosity moved its robotic arm to transfer sample rock powder from its drill to its Chemistry and […]

  • UPDATE: Curiosity to resume use of robotic arm in a few days

    Jim SharkeyMarch 8th, 2015

    Managers of NASA’s Curiosity rover mission plan to resume the use of its robotic arm later this week while continuing to analyze what appears to be an intermittent short in the rover’s drill. On Feb. 27, Curiosity’s fault protection systems halted the transfer of sample rock powder from one device on the rover’s robotic arm […]

  • Curiosity rover stops for testing after short circuit

    Jim SharkeyMarch 5th, 2015

    NASA’s Curiosity rover has stopped driving and science operations for several days so that engineers can analyze a possible short circuit. On Feb. 27, Curiosity’s fault protection systems halted the transfer of material from one device on the rover’s robotic arm to another.

  • ‘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 […]