Curiosity
NASA's car-sized rover in Gale crater, powered by a radioisotope generator rather than solar panels. Its laboratory drills rock and analyses the powder inside the rover, and its laser can vaporise a target several metres away to read its composition. Since landing in August 2012 it has climbed the slopes of Mount Sharp and shown that the crater once held a lake that could have supported microbial life.
Key figures
- Builder
- JPL
- Status
- In service
- First flight
- 2011
- Height
- 2.1 m
- Mass at launch
- 0.9 t