Lunar Dust and Duct Tape
17.04.2004

Why is the Moon dusty? On Earth, rocks are weathered by wind and water, creating soil and sand. On the Moon, the long history of micrometeorite bombardment has blasted away at the rocky surface creating a layer of powdery lunar soil or regolith. This lunar regolith could be a scientific and industrial bonanza.

Chandrayaan 2 Launch
27.07.2019

On July 22nd this GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) MkIII rocket vanished from sight into a cloud bank an instant after this dramatic snapshot was taken. Launched from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre it carried the Chandrayaan 2 mission spacecraft into Earth orbit.

The Road to Victoria Crater on Mars
5.06.2006

Here is a road never traveled. To get to Victoria Crater on Mars, the rolling robotic rover Opportunity must traverse the landscape shown above. Victoria Crater lies about one kilometer ahead. The intervening terrain shows a series of light rock outcrops that appears like some sort of cobblestone road.

Martian Sunset
10.01.2009

This month, the Mars Exploration Rovers are celebrating their 5th anniversary of operations on the surface of the Red Planet. The serene sunset view, part of their extensive legacy of images from the martian surface, was recorded by the Spirit rover on May 19, 2005.

Curiosity: Sol 3048
25.03.2021

Before Perseverance there was Curiosity. In fact, the Curiosity rover accomplished the first sky crane maneuver touchdown on Mars on April 5, 2012. March 2, 2021 marked Curiosity's 3,048th martian day operating on the surface of the Red Planet.

Deimos Before Sunrise
24.05.2025

Deimos takes 30 hours and 18 minutes to complete one orbit around the Red Planet. That's a little more than one Martian day or sol which is about 24 hours and 40 minutes long, so Deimos drifts westward across the Martian sky.

Barnacle Bill And Sojourner
8.07.1997

Deployed on a pop-up mast to its full height, the Sagan Memorial Station's IMP camera now stands about 5 feet above the surface of Ares Vallis - on Mars. This is one of the first images from its new vantage point, showing the rover Sojourner near a rock named Barnacle Bill.

The First Color Panorama from Mars by Curiosity
11.08.2012

You've just landed on Mars and opened your eyes -- what do you see? If you're the Curiosity rover, you see a strange gravelly place with a large mountain in the distance.

Martian Sunset
2.03.2014

What would it be like to see a sunset on Mars? To help find out, the robotic rover Spirit was deployed in 2005 to park and watch the Sun dip serenely below the distant lip of Gusev crater.

Perseverance Takes a Spin
6.03.2021

After arriving at Jezero Crater on Mars, Perseverance went for a spin on March 4. This sharp image from the car-sized rover's Navcam shows tracks left by its wheels in the martian soil. In preparation for operations on the surface of the Red Planet, its first drive lasted about 33 minutes.