The Curiosity rover is a robotic car-sized Mars rover. It is exploring Gale Crater, which is near the equator of Mars. The rover uses a nuclear power and is part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).
The MSL mission has four main scientific goals: study Martian climate and geology, search for water, and find out whether Mars could have ever supported life. Curiosity carries the most advanced scientific equipment ever used on the surface of Mars.
Curiosity is the fourth NASA surface rover sent to Mars in 16 years. Curiosity is also the heaviest robotic wheeled vehicle (at 900 kg) to have ever landed on Mars (The Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 lunar rover (1800) used to be the largest with 840 kg). Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011 at 10:02 EST. It successfully landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:21:27 UTC.
In December 2012, Curiosity's two-year mission was extended indefinitely. On August 7, 2017, NASA celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Curiosity rover landing and related exploratory accomplishments on the planet Mars. The rover is still operational, and as of November 10, 2022, Curiosity has been on Mars for 3648 sols (3748 total days) since landing on August 6, 2012.
Curiosity's design served as the basis for the Mars 2020 rover that was landed on Mars in 18 February 2021.