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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.

Curiosity: Most of sol 2 Navcam panorama, plus 18 full-res Descent Imager frames available

A look at the latest raw data dump from Curiosity: our first sharp view of the rover and immediate surroundings, plus 18 of the full-resolution descent imager frames are now available. Check out the gravel on Curiosity's deck!!

Thumbnail version of Curiosity's first Mastcam color panorama

Curiosity sol 3: First Mastcam color thumbnails down, everything "flawless," "nominal"

Curiosity's third day on Mars has been completed flawlessly, and the first preliminary color view from her Mastcam is lovely.

Curiosity Comes Cheap - Why the latest Mars rover (and all planetary exploration) is a steal

Along with any NASA mission comes the inevitable repetition of its cost and questions of its worth, Curiosity is no exception. This tired media narrative must end. The real question is not,

Planetfest 2012 Was a Huge Success

Planetfest 2012 ended in the best possible way: the Curiosity rover touched down safely on the surface of Mars. In our ballroom, almost two thousand people leapt to their feet and provided thunderous applause to accompany the joyous celebration at mission control.

For use as thumbnail for 3D anaglyph posts

Grab your 3D glasses for this view of Curiosity's landscape on Mars

Curiosity fired up her Navigational Cameras on Sol 2 and began to take a look around her. The first four full-resolution frames are enough for a small 3D panorama that shows a lovely landscape. I think we're going to like it here!

Curiosity sol 1 and planned activities for the next few sols

A look at the current status of Curiosity at the beginning of sol 2, and what activities to look forward to over the next few sols.

Curiosity's first color picture from Mars

Curiosity's MAHLI camera: Much more than a microscopic imager

Today's press briefing featured the first image from MAHLI, the Mars Hand Lens Imager, so it's time for me to dive in to this camera's capabilities.

First full-resolution MARDI frame: Bye-bye, heat shield

The thumbnail versions of the Mars Descent Imager images have shown up on the Curiosity raw images page, and hiding among them was a single full-resolution frame containing the heat shield.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE has done it again!!

In 2008, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped an amazing photo of Phoenix descending to the surface of Mars under its parachute. Now it's repeated the feat, with Curiosity.

Highly processed version of Curiosity sol 0 rear hazcam image

Curiosity: Notes from the two day-after-landing press briefings

Notes on Curiosity's physical state, future activities, landing site, and other stuff gleaned from the two press briefings conducted at JPL today.

MARDI low-resolution view of Curiosity's heat shield

First look at Curiosity MARDI's descent animation (WOW WOW)

Even a preliminary, low-resolution, low-frame-rate version of Curiosity's descent imager animation of the arrival on Mars contains almost more awesome than I can stand.

A "long" view of the Curiosity Descending image

A wider (well, longer) view of the amazing HiRISE image that shows Curiosity descending under parachute to Mars

Getting the most out of those first images from Mars

It's such a rare joy to be able to dive into the images returned from a brand-new mission. The very first images that come to Earth and get posted on the Web are usually of relatively poor quality compared to what comes later, and Curiosity's are no exception to that rule.