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Photo Friday: Nuclear Power Lands on Mars (2012)

NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars on August 6, 2012. Its primary goals were to gather geological and environmental data from the planet.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American



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NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars on August 6, 2012. Its primary goals were to gather geological and environmental data from the planet. This photo was taken by a navigation camera located toward the back-left of the rover. It is, one can see a part of Curisoty's nuclear power supply. Beyond the rover itself, one can see the terrain found in Mars's Gale Crater.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech via the U.S. Department of Energy.