Mars

Mars, 1965 to 2026: photographs from orbiters, landers, rovers and a helicopter. From Mariner 4's first close-up of another planet to Perseverance driving out of Jezero Crater.

37 photographs · 1965 to 2026 · Mission 10 of 14
37 photographs
Frame 11 from Mariner 4, with the crater later named Mariner, Mariner 4, 15 July 1965
Mariner 4 · 15 July 1965PIA02979

The Crater Named Mariner

The first close-up photographs of another planet showed craters, and this one now carries the spacecraft's name.
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The Curiosity rover in the space simulator chamber at JPL, Mars Science Laboratory, 8 March 2011
Mars Science Laboratory · 8 March 2011PIA13805

Curiosity in the Test Chamber

The walls were chilled with liquid nitrogen and lamps stood in for the Sun, so the rover could rehearse Mars in California.
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A trench dug by the Phoenix lander on Mars, Phoenix, 13 June 2008
Phoenix · 13 June 2008PIA10903

A Trench on Mars

The robotic arm dug it by joining two trenches the team had named Dodo and Goldilocks.
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Exposed ice under the Phoenix lander on Mars, Phoenix, 30 May 2008
Phoenix · 30 May 2008PIA10741

Ice Under the Lander

The landing rockets blew the soil away, and the team nicknamed what they found Holy Cow.
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The Mars Pathfinder airbag cluster under test, Mars Pathfinder, 14 June 1995
Mars Pathfinder · 14 June 1995GPN-2000-000484

Airbags Against the Rocks

The early bags tore on the stones. The answer was more layers of a fabric called Vectran.
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Viking 1 lifting off behind cabbage palms at Cape Canaveral, Viking 1, 20 August 1975
Viking 1 · 20 August 1975GPN-2000-000644

Palms in the Foreground

Viking 1 leaving for Mars at twenty two minutes past five in the afternoon, seen across the Florida scrub.
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Sojourner beside the rock Moe at Ares Vallis, Mars Pathfinder, 7 September 1997
Mars Pathfinder · 7 September 1997PIA01120

Carried Under One Arm

It was built for seven days of work on Mars. It was still sending data on the eighty third.
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Ingenuity helicopter hovering over Jezero Crater, Perseverance, 3 August 2023
Perseverance · 3 August 2023PIA25970

Flying on Another Planet

Ingenuity was built for up to five flights. This was the fifty fourth.
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Viking 1 lander deck with the flag and the Chryse plain behind, Viking 1, 23 July 1976
Viking 1 · 23 July 1976PIA00391

The Lander Looks Back

Three days after landing, Viking 1 turned its camera on its own deck and the plain beyond it.
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Lander footpad on the surface of the Chryse plain, Viking 1, 20 July 1976
Viking 1 · 20 July 1976PIA00381

The First Photograph from Mars

It pointed at the ground. Twenty seconds of scan lines, and one of the lander's own feet.
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Sand capped butte Miraflores in a valley, Curiosity, 11 June 2026
Curiosity · 11 June 2026PIA26730

What the Wind Left

The butte stands about twenty feet high. Everything that once surrounded it has eroded away.
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Engineers at Langley with the Viking aeroshell, Viking 1, February 1973
Viking 1 · February 1973GPN-2000-001903

Heat Shield for Mars

Its face was made to char and wear away, carrying the heat of entry off with it.
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A test rover buried in a sandbox at JPL to match Spirit, Spirit, 2009
Spirit · 2009PIA12352

Stuck in a Sandbox

This rover never left Earth. It was buried at JPL to match the trap Spirit was caught in on Mars.
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Perseverance rover tracks on the rim of Jezero Crater, Perseverance, 11 October 2024
Perseverance · 11 October 2024PIA26379

Where the Wheels Slid

Three and a half years after landing on the floor of Jezero Crater, Perseverance was driving out of it.
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Kodiak butte with layers of a river delta, Perseverance, 18 April 2021
Perseverance · 18 April 2021PIA24802

Where a River Ended

Those tilted layers are the cut edge of a delta. The lake it emptied into filled the whole crater.
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Jezero Crater floor seen from the Ingenuity helicopter, Ingenuity, 27 October 2023
Ingenuity · 27 October 2023PIA26201

Ground With No Landmarks

The dark shape at the left edge of the frame is one of the helicopter's own landing legs.
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Blue sunset over the rim of Gusev Crater, Spirit, 19 May 2005
Spirit · 19 May 2005PIA07997

Blue Sunset on Mars

The rover was kept awake past its usual shutdown so that it could make this one.
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Deimos in the predawn sky with two stars, Perseverance, 1 March 2025
Perseverance · 1 March 2025PIA26556

A Moon Before Dawn

Two of the specks beside it are Regulus and Algieba, the stars that draw the head of Leo in our own sky.
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Volcanic fissure beside the Cerberus Fossae, Mars, 14 January 2014
Mars · 14 January 2014PIA17876

Where Mars Still Shakes

A crack in the plain that lava once welled out of. The planet's quakes still come from here.
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Huygens crater in the cratered Iapygia region, Mars
Viking 1 Orbiter · Released 5 June 1998PIA00181

Craters Without End

The broad crater west of centre is named for Christiaan Huygens, who made the first drawing of a marking on Mars in 1659.
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Low angle Curiosity self portrait at Buckskin drill site, Curiosity, 5 August 2015
Curiosity · 5 August 2015PIA19808

From Below the Wheels

The team set the camera lower against the rover than in any self portrait before it, so the ground looks up at the machine.
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Dust devil on the floor of Marathon Valley, Opportunity, 31 March 2016
Opportunity · 31 March 2016PIA20012

Dust Devil Below

Its twin Spirit saw dust devils often. Opportunity almost never did.
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Curiosity rover self portrait beside Namib Dune, Curiosity, 19 January 2016
Curiosity · 19 January 2016PIA20316

Dunes That Still Move

The camera was on the end of the robotic arm, and the arm was held outside every one of the fifty seven frames.
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The first rock core from Mars inside its tube aboard Perseverance, Perseverance, 6 September 2021
Perseverance · 6 September 2021PIA24806

A Core of Mars Rock

Slightly thicker than a pencil, sealed in titanium, and still waiting for a ride to Earth.
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Mars under a global dust storm, from Mariner 9, Mariner 9, 11 November 1971
Mariner 9 · 11 November 1971PIA02996

Mars Under a Dust Storm

A storm had wrapped the whole planet. Only the south polar cap still shows through.
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Inverted river channel on the floor of Reuyl Crater, Mars, 24 December 2014
Mars · 24 December 2014PIA19356

A River Turned Inside Out

The channel is now the high ground. Everything around it wore away instead.
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Chryse plains, Acidalia and the north polar cap, Mars Global Surveyor, March 1999
Mars Global Surveyor · March 1999PIA02000

Two Landers Down There

Viking 1 settled on that pale ground in 1976. Mars Pathfinder came down on it twenty one years later.
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Victoria Crater with Opportunity rover tracks, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 18 July 2009
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter · 18 July 2009PIA12167

Tracks at Victoria

A rover spent two years here. Orbit can still see where it went.
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Merged morning and afternoon panorama across Gale Crater, Curiosity, 16 November 2021
Curiosity · 16 November 2021PIA24937

Morning and Afternoon Together

The blue half was photographed at half past eight in the morning. The orange half at ten past four that afternoon.
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Bright layered rock above Juventae Chasma, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 2 May 2007
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter · 2 May 2007PIA12489

It Rained Here

These minerals only form where water has worked on rock.
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Supersonic parachute inflated in a wind tunnel, Perseverance, June 2017
Perseverance · June 2017PIA23916

A Parachute for Mars

The one that flew carried a message written into its red and white panels in binary, reading Dare Mighty Things.
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Rover wheel scuff in a wind built ripple, Curiosity, 3 October 2012
Curiosity · 3 October 2012PIA16205

A Machine's Footprint

Curiosity drove into the ripple deliberately, to see how the wind had sorted the grains inside it.
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Limb of the planet near Elysium Planitia, Mariner 4, 14 July 1965
Mariner 4 · 14 July 1965M04_01D

A Line at a Time

The first close-up photograph ever made of another planet. It arrived over about eight hours, one line after another.
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Valles Marineris and the Tharsis volcanoes, Viking Orbiter 1, 22 February 1980
Viking Orbiter 1 · 22 February 1980PIA04304

A Canyon Across Mars

It runs longer than the United States is wide, and in places the floor lies eight kilometres below the rim.
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Frosted sand dunes with dust devil tracks, Mars, 26 February 2014
Mars · 26 February 2014PIA18114

Frost in the Shadows

Five thin dark lines cross the sunlit crest. They are the trails of dust devils.
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Layered rock and dark sand in Schiaparelli crater, Mars, 1 July 2014
Mars · 1 July 2014PIA18635

Dust Turned to Stone

The crater carries the name of Giovanni Schiaparelli, whose 1877 map of Martian canali was mistranslated into English as canals.
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Sand draa with ripples in Juventae Chasma, Mars, 6 January 2014
Mars · 6 January 2014PIA18510

A Dune of Dunes

A draa is the largest form wind can build in sand. Smaller dunes and ripples ride across its flanks.
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Mars, 1965 to 2026: photographs from orbiters, landers, rovers and a helicopter. From Mariner 4's first close-up of another planet to Perseverance driving out of Jezero Crater.

37 photographs · 1965 to 2026 · Mission 10 of 14
About Mars

The Mars collection covers every kind of mission sent there: flybys, orbiters, landers, rovers and Ingenuity, the helicopter. It starts with Mariner 4 in July 1965, whose frames arrived one line at a time, and Viking 1, which sent its first photograph from the surface on 20 July 1976. From the rovers come a blue sunset photographed by Spirit, Curiosity's self portraits and Perseverance at the delta in Jezero Crater. From orbit come the dunes, the dust devil tracks, Valles Marineris and the crater named for Schiaparelli.