LCLU Annual Talk with John P. Grotzinger

NASA ’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, with its Curiosity rover, is in its fourteenth year assessing the habitability of its field area in Gale crater. As of December 2025, Curiosity has examined ~900 meters of stratigraphy on Aeolis Palus and Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp) along a 36-km traverse. Mission results indicate that habitable conditions (persistent liquid water, key chemical elements required for life, and sources of energy) were present in multiple environments likely spanning at least millions of years in the early Hesperian, and potentially much longer in the subsurface. Significant mission lifetime and most recent results will both be highlighted.