This Week @ NASA, August 9, 2013

So what can a planetary rover do with a year on Mars?

All NASA's Curiosity rover did was beam back over 190 gigabits of data, more than 36-thousand images and zap 75-thousand-plus laser shots at science targets … and oh by the way, it also completed the mission's main science goal by finding evidence that life was possible on Mars in the past.

The agency celebrated the one year anniversary of Curiosity's landing on Mars with live events from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory -- featuring rover team members.

ONE YEAR ON MARS! – HQ/JPL #1YearOnMars

Original Source

View From Mars Orbiter Showing Curiosity Rover at 'Shaler'

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity appears as a bluish dot near the lower right corner of this enhanced-color view from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.  

The rover's tracks are visible extending from the landing site, "Bradbury Landing," in the left half of the scene. 

The Engine Burns Blue

The Engine Burns Blue

05/24/2013 12:00 AM EDT

This image shows a cutting-edge solar-electric propulsion thruster in development at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., that uses xenon ions for propulsion. An earlier version of this solar-electric propulsion engine has been flying on NASA's Dawn mission to the asteroid belt.

This engine is being considered as part of the Asteroid Initiative, a proposal to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit and explore it.

This image was taken through a porthole in a vacuum chamber at JPL where the ion engine is being tested.  
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech