The left eye of the Mast Camera on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the rover's arm on Wednesday, September 5. Curiosity arrived on Mars early on August 6 and began beaming back images from the surface. See all the images here as they are released. Check out images from previous Mars missions. 
Sub-image one of three shows the rover and its tracks after a few short drives. Tracking the tracks will provide information on how the surface changes as dust is deposited and eroded. 
Sub-image two shows the parachute and backshell, now in color. The outer band of the parachute has a reddish color. 
Sub-image three shows the descent stage crash site, now in color, and several distant spots (blue in enhanced color) downrange that are probably the result of distant secondary impacts that disturbed the surface dust. 
An image released Monday, August 27, was taken with Curiosity rover's 100-millimeter mast camera, NASA says. The image shows Mount Sharp on the Martian surface. NASA says the rover will go to this area. 
The Mars rover Curiosity moved about 15 feet forward and then reversed about 8 feet during its first test drive on Wednesday, August 22. The rover's tracks can be seen in the right portion of this panorama taken by the rover's navigation camera. 
NASA tested the steering on its Mars rover Curiosity on Tuesday, August 21. Drivers wiggled the wheels in place at the landing site on Mars. 
Curiosity moved its robot arm on Monday, August 20, for the first time since it landed on Mars. "It worked just as we planned," said JPL engineer Louise Jandura in a NASA press release. This picture shows the 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) arm holding a camera, a drill, a spectrometer, a scoop and other tools. The arm will undergo weeks of tests before it starts digging. 
With the addition of four high-resolution Navigation Camera, or Navcam, images, taken on August 18, Curiosity's 360-degree landing-site panorama now includes the highest point on Mount Sharp visible from the rover. Mount Sharp's peak is obscured from the rover's landing site by this highest visible point. 
This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The composite incorporates a Navigation Camera image taken prior to the test, with insets taken by the camera in ChemCam. The circular insert highlights the rock before the laser test. The square inset is further magnified and processed to show the difference between images taken before and after the laser interrogation of the rock. 
An updated self-portrait of the Mars rover Curiosity, showing more of the rover's deck. This image is a mosiac compiled from images taken from the navigation camera. The wall of Gale Crater, the rover's landing site, can be seen at the top of the image. 
This image shows what will be the rover's first target with it's chemistry and camera (ChemCam) instrument. The ChemCam will fire a laser at the rock, indicated by the black circle. The laser will cause the rock to emit plasma, a glowing, ionized gas. The rover will then analyze the plasma to determine the chemical composition of the rock. 
This is a close-up of the rock that will be the ChemCam's first target. 
This image, cropped from a larger panorama, shows an area, near the rover's rear left wheel, where the surface material was blown away by the descent-stage rockets. 
This image, with a portion of the rover in the corner, shows the wall of Gale Crater running across the horizon at the top of the image. 
This image, taken from the rover's mast camera, looks south of the landing site toward Mount Sharp. 
This partial mosaic from the Curiosity rover shows Mars' environment around the rover's landing site on Gale Crater. NASA says the pictured landscape resembles portions of the U.S. Southwest. The high-resolution mosaic includes 130 images, but not all the images have been returned by the rover to Earth. The blackened areas of the mosaic are the parts that haven't been transmitted yet. See more on this panaroma on NASA's site. 
In this portion of the larger mosaic from the previous frame, the crater wall can be seen north of the landing site, or behind the rover. NASA says water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys, which enter Gale Crater from the outside here. 
In this portion of the larger mosaic from the previous frame, the crater wall can be seen north of the landing site, or behind the rover. NASA says water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys, which enter Gale Crater from the outside here. 
Two blast marks from the descent stage's rockets can be seen in the center of this image. Also seen is Curiosity's left side. This picture is a mosaic of images taken by the rover's navigation cameras. 
A color image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the pebble-covered surface of Mars. This panorama mosaic was made of 130 images of 144 by 144 pixels each. Selected full frames from this panorama, which are 1,200 by 1,200 pixels each, are expected to be transmitted to Earth later. 
A panoramic photograph shows the Curiosity rover's surroundings at its landing site inside Gale Crater. The rim of Gale Crater can be seen to the left, and the base of Mount Sharp is to the center-right. 
A partial view of a 360-degree color panorama of the Curiosity rover's landing site on Gale Crater. The panorama comes from low-resolution versions of images taken Thursday, August 9, with a 34-millimeter mast camera. Cameras mounted on Curiosity's remote sensing mast have beamed back fresh images of the site. 
NASA's Curiosity rover took this self-portrait using a camera on its newly deployed mast. 
A close-up view of an area at the NASA Curiosity landing site where the soil was blown away by the thrusters during the rover's descent on August 6. The excavation of the soil reveals probable bedrock outcrop, which shows the shallow depth of the soil in this area. 
This color full-resolution image showing the heat shield of NASA's Curiosity rover was obtained during descent to the surface of Mars on Monday, August 13. The image was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager instrument known as MARDI and shows the 15-foot diameter heat shield when it was about 50 feet from the spacecraft. 
This first image taken by the Navigation cameras on Curiosity shows the rover's shadow on the surface of Mars. 
The color image captured by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Tuesday, August 7, has been rendered about 10% transparent so that scientists can see how it matches the simulated terrain in the background. 
This image comparison shows a view through a Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover before and after the clear dust cover was removed. Both images were taken by a camera at the front of the rover. Mount Sharp, the mission's ultimate destination, looms ahead. 
The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing. 
This image is a 3-D view in front of NASA's Curiosity rover. The anaglyph was made from a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance Cameras on the front of the rover. Mount Sharp, a peak that is about 3.4 miles high, is visible rising above the terrain, though in one "eye" a box on the rover holding the drill bits obscures the view. 
This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager on Monday afternoon on the first day after landing. 
This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager on Monday afternoon, the first day after landing. 
This is one of the first pictures taken by Curiosity after it landed. It shows the rover's shadow on the Martian soil. 
Another of the first images taken by the rover. The clear dust cover that protected the camera during landing has popped open. Part of the spring that released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover's wheel. 
This image shows Curiosity's main science target, Mount Sharp. The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground. The dark bands in the distances are dunes. 
Another of the first images beamed back from NASA's Curiosity rover on August 6 is the shadow cast by the rover on the surface of Mars. 
NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover, shown in this artist's rendering, touched down on the planet on August 6. 
- Scientists aren't seeing major 'wild cards' in rover performance
- Dust cover on high-resolution camera appears to be intact
- Sampling of Martian material may begin in about a month
- Curiosity has been on Mars since August 6
(CNN) -- Fashion Week has begun in New York, but for space enthusiasts, the most exciting glamor shots are coming from Mars.
The much-celebrated rover Curiosity has so far strutted 109 meters (358 feet) on the surface of the Red Planet, according to its odometer, and she's looking great, NASA scientists say. The 2000-pound SUV-sized rover has been on the surface of Mars for about one month, and operating as expected.
"There have been no significant anomalies or wild cards thrown in where the performance on Mars differed significantly from the Earth," said Michael Watkins, Curiosity mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at a news briefing Thursday. "That's a real testament to the engineers that developed the system."
A new photo from the rover's camera on the mast shows off the rover's arm against the spectacular Martian landscape.
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New images show Mars rover in motion On the arm is the MAHLI camera, with resolution so great that it can resolve down to the grain of talcum powder, said Aileen Yingst at Thursday's NASA news briefing. Yingst is the deputy principal investigator for Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager at the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson.
All that separated this camera's lens from the Martian environment was a dust cover, which appears to be intact. That means even higher-resolution images from the Red Planet may come through soon.
"We're just completely and totally enthralled and excited by this image," Yingst said.
What we've done on Mars, and what's next
Another new photo shows the rover's tracks from its first drives on Mars, as seen from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Scientists can get insights about how changes on the Martian surface, as dust is deposited, by examining these tracks over time. HiRISE also took an image of the parachute and back shell that helped Curiosity arrive safely.
Curiosity made a dramatic landing on August 6 in a complicated maneuver involving a large parachute and a sky crane. Scientists and fans watched the live NASA feed from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as mission specialists confirmed the touchdown. The landing site has been dubbed Bradbury Landing after science fiction author Ray Bradbury.
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In the interim, researchers have been checking out the many different instruments on board Curiosity. The rover also did a test drive in August and has moved away from the landing site. Now, everything except for the arm and sampling system is already operational, scientists said.
The rover is currently 82 meters (269 feet, measured as the crow flies) from Bradbury Landing. It will remain there for about another week while scientists continue testing. In about a month, scientists plan to have Curiosity scoop up some Martian material.
Because the rover is taking images as it goes, planners can determine whether it's making progress and how much slippage there is. It appears that there is very little slippage going on, Watkins said.
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Curiosity's next destination is Glenelg, a site with three types of terrain, including layered bedrock, that may be a prime target for drilling.
Ultimately, the rover will end up at Mount Sharp, about 3 miles high and composed of hundreds of layers of rock that built up over time. As the rover climbs, it will sample different layers to investigate signs that life could have once existed on Mars.
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