Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Imaging Node Mission Page

Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

The Mars Science Laboratory mission's Curiosity rover, the most technologically advanced rover ever built, landed in Mars' Gale Crater the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT) using a series of complicated landing maneuvers never before attempted. The specialized landing sequence, which employed a giant parachute, a jet-controlled descent vehicle and a bungee-like apparatus called a "sky crane," was devised because tested landing techniques used during previous rover missions could not safely accommodate the much larger and heavier rover.
Curiosity's mission is to determine whether the Red Planet ever was, or is, habitable to microbial life. The rover, which is about the size of a MINI Cooper, is equipped with 17 cameras and a robotic arm containing a suite of specialized laboratory-like tools and instruments.
The mission is planned to operate on Mars over at least a full martian year (687 Earth days). The rover has eight science objectives:

determine the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds

inventory the chemical building blocks of life

identify features that may represent the effects of biological processes

investigate the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical composition of the martian
surface and near-surface geological materials

interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils

assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) atmospheric evolution processes

determine the present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide

characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic cosmic
radiation, solar proton events, and secondary neutrons

Curiosity Instruments

The Imaging Node archives Hazcam and Navcam 'operations data' and MAHLI, MARDI and Mastcam science data.