Mars Rover Landscapes

Panoramic views from various Mars rovers, capturing rocky terrains, operational scenes, and detailed landscapes, with a focus on exploration and scientific observation.

Rover, Airbags, & Surrounding Rocks

Rover Exploring A Valley On Mars

This image shows NASA's Phoenix Lander's Robotic Arm scoop delivering a sample to the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) and how samples are analyzed within the instrument.

Curiosity Mars Rover exploring the surface of red planet Curiosity Mars Rover exploring the surface of red planet Copyright: xZoonar.com/StanislavxRishnyakx 13813258

This artist's concept depicts NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander a moment before its 2008 touchdown on the arctic plains of Mars. Pulsed rocket engines control the spacecraft's speed during the final seconds of descent.

This 3D image from NASA's Curiosity was taken from the rover's Bradbury Landing site inside Gale Crater, Mars. Between the rover on the right, and its shadow on the left, looms the rover's eventual target: Mount Sharp.

NASA Dedicates Mars Landmarks to Columbia Crew

False color mosaic view of Greeley Haven taken from Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. This scene shows the windswept vista northward (left) to northeastward (right) from the location where Opportunity is spending its fifth Martian winter. The view includes sand ripples and other wind-sculpted features in the foreground and mid-field. The northern edge of the Cape York segment of the rim of Endeavour Crater forms an arc across the upper half of the scene.

Looking Back at Arena of Exploration

A ridge called 'Rocheport' on the western rim of Mars' Endeavour Crater spans this mosaic of images from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.

At Bright Band Inside Victoria Crater

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its rear hazard avoidance camera to take this view toward the south during the 1,899th Martian day, or sol, of Spirit's mission on Mars (May 6, 2009).

Sojourner near the Rock

Mars exploration, conceptual computer artwork.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is continuing its traverse southward on the western rim of Endeavour Crater during the fall of 2014, stopping to investigate targets of scientific interest along way.

This photograph shows the Vehicle System Test Bed (VSTB) rover, a nearly identical copy to NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars.

This artist's concept shows the Mars Helicopter on the Martian surface.

This view from the navigation camera near the top of the mast on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the tracks left by the rover as it drove southward and backward, dragging its inoperable right-front wheel.

Looking Back at 'Purgatory Dune'

Astronaut walking on planet, illustration.

This view of layers around the edge of a low plateau called 'Home Plate' inside Mars' Gusev Crater includes a feature that may be what geologists call a 'bomb sag' and interpret as evidence of an explosive event, such as a volcanic eruption

Two Holes in 'Wooly Patch'

Sojourner's Farthest Journey - Left Eye

Cross-bedding seen in the layers of this Martian rock is evidence of movement of water recorded by the waves or ripples of loose sediment the water passed over, such as a current in a lake. This image is from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.

This image from NASA's Curiosity Rover shows a high-resolution view of an area that is known as Goulburn Scour, a set of rocks blasted by the engines of Curiosity's descent stage on Mars.

Tread Tracks on an Alien World, Mars, Made by Spirit Rover

This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples of rocks and soil being collected from the Martian surface by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover. NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are developing concepts for the Mars Sample Return program, designed to retrieve the rock and soil samples Perseverance has collected and stored in sealed tubes. In the future, the samples would be returned to Earth for detailed laboratory analysis. The current concept envisions delivering a Mars lander near Jezero Crater, where Perseverance (far left) collects samples. A NASA-provided Sample Retrieval Lander (far right) would carry a NASA rocket (the Mars Ascent Vehicle). Perseverance would gather sample tubes it has cached on the Mars surface and transport them to the Sample Retrieval Lander, where they would then be transferred by a Sample Transfer Arm provided by ESA onto the Mars Ascent Vehicle. The arm is based on a human arm, with an elbow, shoulder, an

This false color view, called the 'McMurdo' panorama, from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, where the rover stayed on a small hill known as 'Low Ridge' from April through October 2006.

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 14546963

Perched on a rippled Martian plain, a dark rock not much bigger than a basketball was the target of interest for NASA's Opportunity during the past two months; Opportunity's rock abrasion tool brushed dust out of the circular area.

This is the first image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a fisheye wide-angle lens on one of the rover's front left Hazard-Avoidance cameras.

Pathfinder Rover Atop Mermaid

This artist's concept depicts the moment that NASA's Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface. The Mars Science Laboratory will use the sky crane touchdown system.

Side-by-side images depict NASA's Curiosity rover (left) and a moon buggy driven during the Apollo 16 mission. Moon buggies were used during the Apollo missions to carry astronauts, lunar samples and equipment. During the Apollo 17 mission, that equipment included the Traverse Gravimeter Experiment (TGE), a special instrument for measuring gravity. Curiosity wasn't sent to Mars with gravimeters, but it does have accelerometers that are used to navigate the rover. A paper in Science published on Jan. 31, 2019, details how these sensors were repurposed to measure the gravitational pull of Mount Sharp, the mountain Curiosity has been climbing since 2014. Movie available at

Hungry for Rocks

A view from the 'Kimberly' formation on Mars taken by NASA's Curiosity rover. The strata in the foreground dip towards the base of Mount Sharp, indicating the ancient depression that existed before the larger bulk of the mountain formed.

This image shows the evolution of the trench called 'Snow White' that NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander began digging on the 22nd Martian day of the mission after the May 25, 2008, landing.

Shark as Viewed by Sojourner Rover

The 'Bonanza King' rock on Mars, pictured here, was tapped by the drill belonging to NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The tapping resulted in sand piling up on the rock after drilling, showing the rock was not firmly in place.

In this artist's concept, NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter stands on the Red Planet's surface as NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover (partially visible on the left) rolls away. Ingenuity, a technology experiment, will be the first aircraft to attempt controlled flight on another planet. It will arrive on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021, attached to the belly of NASA's Perseverance rover. Perseverance will deploy Ingenuity onto the surface of Mars, and Ingenuity is expected to attempt its first flight test in spring 2021.

This image shows the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with the first rock touched by an instrument on the arm. The rover placed the APXS instrument onto the rock to assess what chemical elements were present in the rock.

This frame is from sequence of views NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recorded of the sun setting at the close of the mission's 956th Martian day, or sol (April 15, 2015), from the rover's location in Gale Crater.

Illustrations of NASA's Curiosity and Mars 2020 rovers. While the newest rover borrows from Curiosity's design, each has its own role in the ongoing exploration of Mars and the search for ancient life.

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover passed near this small, relatively fresh crater in April 2017, during the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 16 mission to the moon. The rover team chose to call it Orion Crater, after the Apollo 16 lunar module. The rover's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) recorded this view, presented in enhanced color to make differences in surface materials more easily visible. The crater's diameter is about 90 feet (27 meters). From the small amount of erosion or filling that Orion Crater has experienced, its age is estimated at no more than 10 million years. It lies on the western rim of Endeavour Crater. For comparison, Endeavor is about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter and more than 3.6 billion years old. This view combines multiple images taken through three different Pancam filters. The selected filters admit light centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The component images were taken on April 26, 2

This image from Curiosity's Mastcam looks to the west of a waypoint on the rover's route to Mount Sharp. The mountain lies to the left of the scene.

Spirit's First Grinding of a Rock on Mars

The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity plans to investigate rocks in this area. Both the dark fins and the paler outcrop beyond them hold potential targets for studying with instruments on the rover.

Simulated View for Rover Activity Planning

This view from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover spans 360 degrees, centered southward toward a planned science waypoint at the

Adirondack Under the Microscope

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured this image as the rover ascended 'Murray Ridge' above 'Solander Point' on the western rim of Endeavour Crater.

This stereo view from NASA's Opportunity rover shows 'Lunokhod 2 Crater,' which lies south of 'Solander Point' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. Lunokhod 2 Crater is approximately 20 feet (6 meters) in diameter.

This image shows the vast plains of the northern polar region of Mars, as seen by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shortly after touching down on the Red Planet. The flat landscape is strewn with tiny pebbles and shows polygonal cracking.

NASA's Perseverance rover wiggles one of its wheels in this set of images obtained by the rover's left Navigation Camera on March 4, 2021. 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. Movie available at

Lander and Mini

Evidence of a Water-Soaked Past

This grouping of two test rovers and a flight spare provides a graphic comparison of three generations of Mars rovers developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The setting is JPL's Mars Yard testing area.

This image from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows a small bright object on the ground beside the rover at the 'Rocknest' site. The rover team has assessed this object as debris from the spacecraft, possibly from the events of landing on Mars.

Inside Victoria Crater for Extended Exploration

A landscape scene from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows rock rows at 'Junda' forming striations in the foreground, with Mount Sharp on the horizon.

Iron Meteorite on Mars

Mid-Level Soil Sample for Oven Number Seven

This artist's concept depicts the moment immediately after NASA's Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface. The spacecraft has detected touchdown, and pyrotechnic cutters have severed connections between rover and spacecraft's descent stage.

The 'Mini Matterhorn' is a 3/4 meter rock immediately east-southeast of NASA's Mars Pathfinder lander. 3D glasses are necessary to identify surface detail.

This set of images shows NASA's InSight lander deploying its first instrument onto the surface of Mars, completing a major mission milestone. InSight's robotic arm is white, with a black, handlike grapple at the end. The grapple is holding onto the copper-colored seismometer. The color-calibrated image was taken on Dec. 19, 2018, around dusk on Mars, with InSight's Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), which is on the lander's robotic arm. Animation available at

The Surface Stereo Imager camera aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander acquired a series of images of the laser beam in the Martian night sky. Bright spots in the beam are reflections from ice crystals in the low level ice-fog.

Insight Mars exploring the surface of red planet Insight Mars exploring the surface of red planet Copyright: xZoonar.com/StanislavxRishnyakx 13813199

Clouds over 'Endurance' on Sol 291

Martian Plain in Late Summer

Opportunity Spies Its Target

NASA's rover Curiosity uses its calibration target for the Mastcam to approximate colors we would see on Mars, using the known colors of materials on the target.

You Dirty Rat!

Comanche Outcrop on Mars Indicates Hospitable Past

This wide panorama was taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Dec. 19, 2019, the 2,620th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. On the righthand foreground is Western Butte; the ridge with a crusty cap in the background is the Greenheugh pediment, which Curiosity ascended in March of 2020. The rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam, used its telephoto lens to produce the panorama, which includes 130 individual images stitched together. The panorama has been white-balanced so that the colors of the rock materials resemble how they would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth.

Soil Disturbance by Airbags

Spectral Mapping of Landing Site

How to Locate the Newly Named Craters

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