Mars Surface Exploration

Images showcasing the Martian landscape, including trenches and craters, with a focus on rocky terrain and the horizon from various spacecraft missions.

Lumpy Rock Dubbed 'Wopmay' and Dune, Mars, From Rover Opportunity

This mosaic of images from the Surface Stereo Imager camera on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows several trenches dug by Phoenix, plus a corner of the spacecraft's deck and the Martian arctic plain stretching to the horizon.

Spirit's Airbags Leave Trail

Fram Crater in Color (Digital Composite) Seen by Rover Opportunity

Martian Surface & Pathfinder Airbags

This approximately true-color image shows paper-thin layers of light-toned, jagged-edged rocks; a light gray rock with smooth, rounded edges atop and drifts; and several dark gray to black, angular rocks with vesicles typical of hardened lava

This mosaic of images shows the windswept vista northward (left) to northeastward (right) from the location where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending its fifth Martian winter, an outcrop informally named 'Greeley Haven.'

Lumpy Rock Dubbed 'Wopmay' and Dune, Mars, From Rover Opportunity

Opportunity's Second Martian Birthday at Cape Verde

Taken on March 5, 2021, this color-calibrated image from a Navigation Camera aboard NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover shows tracks from the rover's first drive (darker marks in the foreground) and an area scoured by the Mars 2020 mission's descent stage rockets (lighter-colored area in the middle ground). A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help

A selfie taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Sol 2291 (January 15) at the Rock Hall drill site, located on Vera Rubin Ridge. This was Curiosity's 19th drill site. The drill hole is visible to the rover's lower-left; the entire scene is slightly dustier than usual due to a regional dust storm affecting the area. The selfie is composed of 57 individual images taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera on the end of the rover's robotic arm. The images are then stitched together into a panorama.

Terrain at Landing Site

This selfie was taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Feb. 26, 2020 (the 2,687th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). The crumbling rock layer at the top of the image is the Greenheugh Pediment, which Curiosity climbed soon after taking the image. Directly to the left of Curiosity's foremost wheel is a hole the rover drilled at a rock feature called Hutton. The selfie includes 86 individual images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the end of Curiosity's robotic arm. The images were then stitched into a panorama.

Forward Ramp Within 360-degree Panorama

Ice on Mars Utopia Planitia Again

. Jezero Crater's Yori Pass. This image of Yori Pass was taken by one of the Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) on NASA's Perseverance Mars rover on Nov. 5, 2022, the 609th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The feature, at the base of Jezero Crater, is sandstone, which is composed of fine grains that have been carried from elsewhere by water before settling and forming stone. The rover will take a rock-core sample here. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance m

This synthetic image of NASA's Spirit Mars Exploration Rover on the flank of 'Husband Hill' was produced using 'Virtual Presence in Space' technology.

Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's Solar Panels and Landing Platform, Mars

Rim of 'Erebus'

Airbag Trails-2

This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the 'Quela' drilling location in the 'Murray Buttes' area on lower Mount Sharp.

. Curiosity's Attempted Climb up a Slope. NASA's Curiosity Mars rover attempted to climb a slope near the center of this image, but struggled due to the incline, slippery sand, and wheel-size rocks. The rover instead drove on from this area to where the incline leveled out, allowing it to crest the slope. Rover tracks can be seen in the lower right. This mosaic is made up of 18 images that were stitched together after being sent back to Earth. The mosaic was captured on June 27, 2023, the 3,871st Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.

This artist's concept depicts NASA's Mars 2020 rover on the surface of Mars. The mission takes the next step by not only seeking signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past, but also searching for signs of past microbial life itself. The Mars 2020 rover introduces a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils and set them aside on the surface of Mars. A future mission could potentially return these samples to Earth. Mars 2020 is targeted for launch in July/August 2020 aboard an Atlas V 541 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover looks back at its wheel tracks on March 17, 2022, the 381st Martian day, or sol, of the mission. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

Spirit's Spectacular View from the Summit

Mars: July 21, 1976 The Martian landscape as photographed by the Viking 1 Lander Module the day after it landed on the surface of Mars.

This illustration shows a concept of what a rover fetching rock and soil samples on Mars for return to Earth could look like. The sample tube in this image would have been left on the surface by a previous mission, NASA's Mars 2020 rover. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are solidifying concepts for a Mars sample return mission to return Mars 2020 samples to Earth for scientific investigation. NASA will deliver a Mars lander in the vicinity of Jezero Crater, where the Mars 2020 rover will have collected and cached samples. The lander will carry a NASA rocket (the Mars Ascent Vehicle) along with ESA's Sample Fetch Rover that is roughly the size of NASA's Opportunity Mars rover. The fetch rover will gather the cached samples and carry them back to the lander for transfer to the ascent vehicle; additional samples could also be delivered directly by Mars 2020. The ascent vehicle will then launch a special container holding the samples into Mars orbit. ESA will put a spacecraft in o

New Real Estate on Mars

$West of Valles Marineris lies a checkerboard named Noctis Labyrinthus, which formed when the Martian crust stretched and fractured. As faults opened, they released subsurface ice and water, causing the ground to collapse.$

The robotic arm on NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used its percussive drill to eject fragments of cored rock from a sample tube on Jan. 15, 2022, the 322nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. One of the rover's hazard cameras (hazcam) obtained same-day, before-and-after images of the surface below the rover to help better understand the results of this operation. There are two versions of the image Animation frame 1 shows the ground below Perseverance prior to the use of the rover's percussive drill on Jan. 15. Animation frame 2 shows the same ground later that same day, after the percussive drill was employed. In this second image, at least eight new pieces of rock fragments can be seen. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian

A dust devil dances across a crater eroded by gullies in Noachis Terra, Mars. The gullies are thought to have been eroded by liquid water flowing on Mars in geologically recent times.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander reaching with its Robotic Arm and taking a picture of the surface underneath the lander. The light feature in the middle of the image below the leg is informally called 'Holy Cow.'

This false-color image shows paper-thin layers of light-toned, jagged-edged rocks; a light gray rock with smooth, rounded edges atop and drifts; and several dark gray to black, angular rocks with vesicles typical of hardened lava scattered across the sand

Three craters in the eastern Hellas region of Mars

Opportunity Mars exploring the surface of red planet Oppotunity Mars exploring the surface of red planet. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/StanislavxRishnyakx 14600978

Ingenuity Captures Perseverance at Belva Crater. This image of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover at the rim of Belva Crater was taken by the agency's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during the rotorcraft's 51st flight on April 22, 2023, the 772nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission. At the time the image was taken, the helicopter was at an altitude of about 40 feet (12 meters). The rover is in the upper left of the image, parked at a light-toned rocky outcrop the science team is calling Echo Creek. Perseverance's tracks can be seen extending from its location to the upper-right side of image. The helicopter's shadow can be seen on the rocky hill in the foreground, just to the right and below the image's center. The hill, designated Mount Julian by the science team, is a planned future stop for the rover. A small triangular piece of debris from the rover's entry, descent, and landing system can be seen at the lower center of image. https //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25884

This view of the three left wheels of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines two images that were taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 34th Martian day, or sol, on Mars (Sept. 9, 2012).

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life, is in development for a launch opportunity in 2011 (previously 2009).

Spirit View of 'Wishstone' (False Color)

Huygens Probe on Surface of Titan

Thanks to NASA for providing us with these wonderful images. These images are created by NASA but you are allowed to use them in your commercial projects. PeopleImages has digitally restored and cleaned each of these images manually and spent hundreds of hours fixing scanning lines, sensor dust and noise problems. Enjoy!

Insight Mars exploring the surface of red planet

Mining on Mars, artwork

This image from NASA's Curiosity shows a scoop full of sand and dust lifted by the rover's first use of the scoop on its robotic arm. In the foreground, near bottom of this image, the bright object visible on the ground might be a piece of rover hardware.

This artist's concept of the proposed NASA Mars Sample Return mission shows the launch of the martian sample back toward Earth.

Planet surface, illustration.

Mars outpost near mesa.

Opportunity Self-Portrait, Sols 322-323

ASI/MET Within Color-Enhanced Panorama

Three Classes of Martian rocks

Oppotunity Mars exploring the surface of red planet. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. Opportunity Mars exploring the surface of red planet

Ingenuity at 'Airfield Mu'. This image of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at Airfield Mu was taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard Perseverance on April 14, 2023, the 764th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission. The helicopter's landing hazard avoidance algorithm helped guide it to a safe landing at Mu the previous sol, after completing its 50th flight. The helicopter is just below and to the left of center in the image. It is about 720 feet (220 meters) away from the rover. The approximately 4-foot-wide (1.2-meter-wide) split boulder, which appears to be directly in front and to the right of the helicopter, is actually about 380 feet (115 meters) in front of the rotorcraft. https //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25883

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded the component images for this self-portrait about three weeks before completing a decade of work on Mars.

Sandstone layers with varying resistance to erosion are evident in this Martian scene recorded by the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Feb. 25, 2014, about one-quarter mile (about 400 meters) from a planned waypoint called the

Curiosity Mars Rover exploring the surface of red planet

Oppotunity Mars exploring the surface of red planet. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. Opportunity Mars exploring the surface of red planet

IDL TIFF file

Phoenix Mars Lander

NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity catches its own late-afternoon shadow in this dramatically lit view eastward across Endeavour Crater on Mars.

Insight Mars exploring the surface of red planet Insight Mars exploring the surface of red planet Copyright: xZoonar.com/StanislavxRishnyakx 14361490

Aerial View of Mars' Landscape

NASA's Perseverance Rover Collects Regolith. This GIF shows NASA's Perseverance Mars rover collecting two samples of regolith - broken rock and dust - with a regolith sampling bit on the end of its robotic arm. The samples were collected on Dec. 2 and 6, 2022, the 634th and 639th Martian days, or sols, of the mission. The images were taken by one of the rover's front hazard cameras. One of the two regolith samples will be considered for deposit on the Martian surface in coming weeks as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. Studying regolith with powerful lab equipment back on Earth will allow scientists to better understand the processes that have shaped the surface of Mars and help engineers design future missions as well as equipment used by future Martian astronauts. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human

Curiosity Mars Rover exploring the surface of red planet Curiosity Mars Rover exploring the surface of red planet. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. Copyright: xZoonar.com/StanislavxRishnyakx 14361583

Pathfinder on Mars

This is a portion of the first color 360-degree panorama from NASA's Curiosity rover, made up of thumbnails, a mountain at the center of Gale Crater called Mount Sharp, can be seen in the distance.

This image shows coarse-grained layers from around the edge of a low plateau called 'Home Plate' inside Mars' Gusev Crater

This image from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander of the Canadian-built meteorological station's lidar, which was successfully activated on Sol 2 by first opening its dust cover, then emitting rapid pulses of light.

Here is a rover's eye view of driving, scooping and drilling during Curiosity's first year on Mars, August 2012 through July 2013 taken by NASA's Mars rover's Navigation Camera (Navcam).

This mosaic of images from NASA's Curiosity shows geological members of the Yellowknife Bay formation, and the sites where Curiosity drilled into the lowest-lying member, called Sheepbed, at targets 'John Klein' and 'Cumberland'.

The right Mast Camera (Mastcam) of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover provided this contextual view of the vicinity of the location called 'John Klein,' selected as Curiosity's first drilling site.

This artist's concept depicts NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander

Project 30-18 - Operation Upshot/Knothole (Nevada Test Site) Detonation. GRABLE detonation: series of 14 aerial photos showing fireball and cloud (5 of 14). Photographs of Atmospheric Nuclear Testing at Pacific Island and Nevada Test Sites.

After snagging a new rock sample on August 9, 2018 (Sol 2137), NASA's Curiosity rover surveyed its surroundings on Mars, producing a 360-degree panorama of its current location on Vera Rubin Ridge. The scene is presented with a color adjustment that approximates white balancing, to resemble how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Two versions are included here one with scale bars, and one without. The panorama includes umber skies, darkened by a fading global dust storm. It also includes a rare view by the Mast Camera of the rover itself, revealing a thin layer of dust on Curiosity's deck. In the foreground is the rover's most recent drill target, named Stoer after a town in Scotland near where important discoveries about early life on Earth were made in lakebed sediments.

Mars probe. Conceptual computer artwork of a spacecraft flying over the Martian surface.

Rock and Soil Types at Pathfinder Landing Site

Drones conducting research over Mars, illustration

Curiosity Mars Rover exploring the surface of red planet. Elements of this image furnished by NASA.. Curiosity Mars Rover exploring the surface of red planet

Mud

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter captured this view on Nov. 3, 2023, of its parking spot during Mars solar conjunction - a period when the Sun is between Earth and Mars, limiting communications. Ingenuity will use its color camera during this period to take time-lapse images of sand grains to learn more about how they move on the Red Planet. In the upper left of the image, one of the helicopter's legs is visible just out of frame. Just to the right of that is one of several footprints made before the helicopter lifted off on a previous flight to reposition itself. During conjunction, hot, ionized gas being expelled from the Sun's corona can potentially corrupt radio signals sent from Earth to NASA's fleet of Mars spacecraft, leading to unexpected behaviors. So, during this time, engineers don't send any commands, but the spacecraft do send their health data back to Earth. After conjunction, scientists will look through Ingenuity's imagery and see if any sand grains were blown by the wind. T

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Argos, and the plain whose horses were famed in Homer's day - S.E. to Nauplia, Greece , Forts & fortifications, Archaeological sites, Plains. Nicholas Catsimpoolas Collection

Ma'adim Vallis From the Top

This image from InSight's robotic-arm mounted Instrument Deployment Camera shows the instruments on the spacecraft's deck, with the Martian surface of Elysium Planitia in the background. The color-calibrated picture was acquired on Dec. 4, 2018 (Sol 8). In the foreground, a copper-colored hexagonal cover protects the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure instrument (SEIS), a seismometer that will measure marsquakes. The gray dome behind SEIS is the wind and thermal shield, which will be placed over SEIS. To the left is a black cylindrical instrument, the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe (HP3). HP3 will drill up to 16 feet (5 meters) below the Martian surface, measuring heat released from the interior of the planet. Above the deck is InSight's robotic arm, with the stowed grapple directly facing the camera. To the right can be seen a small portion of one of the two solar panels that help power InSight and part of the UHF communication antenna.

The left eye of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the camera on the rover's arm.

A blink pair of images taken before and after NASA's Curiosity performed a 'mini drill' test on a Martian rock shows changes resulting from that activity.

alien spaceship rotate over desert. ufo landscape. ufo. alien spaceship rotate over desert. ufo

A false-color self-portrait of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity taken by the rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) shows effects of recent winds removing much of the dust from the solar arrays.

Silica-Rich Soil Found by Spirit

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory travels near a on Mars in this artist's concept

The piece of metal with the American flag on it in this image of a NASA rover on Mars is made of aluminum recovered from the site of the World Trade Center towers in the weeks after their destruction.

$view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, showing a network of two-tone mineral veins at an area called 'Garden City' on lower Mount Sharp. Mineral veins such as these form where fluids move through fractured rocks, depositing minerals in the fractures and affecting chemistry of the surrounding rock. In this case, the veins have been more resistant to erosion than the surrounding host rock.$

Artist's concept of a martian rover

Trench Reveals Two Faces of Soils

This oblique view of Gale crater shows the landing site and the mound of layered rocks that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will investigate. The landing site is in the smooth area in front of the mound.

This image (cut out from a mosaic) shows the view from the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover toward the lower reaches of Mount Sharp, where Curiosity is likely to begin its ascent through hundreds of feet (meters) of layered deposits.

Astronauts exploring the moon of planet Mars.

Rover Soil Experiments Near Casper & Shaggy

A rover navigating the rocky terrain of Mars a remote explorer in search of lifes signatures

Martian terrain near Pathfinder

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's was captured after landing on May 7, 2021, by the Mastcam-Z imager, one of the instruments aboard the agency's Perseverance rover. The helicopter ascended to a new height record of 33 feet (10 meters) and flew 424 feet (129 meters) to a new landing site. This was the helicopter's fifth flight, and the first time the helicopter made a one-way flight. It was airborne a total of 108 seconds.

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