Mars rovers give scientists a ground-level view of the red planet – peek inside their NASA control room

Each day in the control room of the Curiosity rover is jam-packed with important scientific decisions, as a NASA project scientist describes.

By: Ashwin R. Vasavada, NASA, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: August 27, 2026

Words: 1,170

Last Updated: 1 month, 3 weeks ago

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By Ashwin R. Vasavada, NASA

Lights blink on as I enter the Rover Operations Center at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, at 7:30 a.m. I’m the first to arrive, even though I already feel late.

Sometime during the night on Earth, the Curiosity rover finished its day exploring on Mars and beamed its latest collection of images and measurements to a Mars orbiter zooming by overhead. The orbiter relayed the …

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