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

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used two cameras to create this selfie in front of Mont Mercou, a tall rock outcrop. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

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 data to Earth, where it now waits on servers here and at partner institutions around the globe.