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Datasets:
juliensimon
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nasa-mars-rover-images

Tasks:
Tabular Classification
Modalities:
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Text
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Languages:
English
Size:
100K - 1M
Tags:
space
mars
perseverance
curiosity
mars2020
msl
Libraries:
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nasa-mars-rover-images
File size: 6,624 Bytes
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---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "NASA Mars Rover Image Catalog"
language:
  - en
description: "Metadata for every raw image captured by Perseverance (Mars 2020) and Curiosity (MSL) rovers on Mars, including camera, sol, position, and download URLs."
size_categories:
  - 100K<n<1M
task_categories:
  - tabular-classification
tags:
  - space
  - mars
  - perseverance
  - curiosity
  - mars2020
  - msl
  - rover
  - nasa
  - images
  - open-data
  - tabular-data
  - parquet
configs:
  - config_name: default
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/mars_rover_images.parquet
    default: true
  - config_name: mars2020
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/mars_rover_images.parquet
  - config_name: msl
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/mars_rover_images.parquet
---

# NASA Mars Rover Image Catalog

<div align="center">
  <img src="banner.jpg" alt="NASA's Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars" width="400">
  <p><em>Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS</em></p>
</div>

*Part of the [Solar System Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/solar-system-datasets-69c24ca3c76c541ab1f1abe7) and [Planetary Science Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/planetary-science-datasets-69c24cb75fbb91ebe51f2e24) collections on Hugging Face.*

![Update Mars Rovers](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets/actions/workflows/update-mars-rovers.yml/badge.svg)
![Updated](https://img.shields.io/badge/dynamic/json?url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/juliensimon/space-datasets/main/status.json&query=$.mars-rovers&label=updated&color=brightgreen)

Image metadata from NASA's Mars rovers: **200,000** Perseverance images (sol 4,859) and **200,000** Curiosity images (sol 4,859), totaling **400,000** records across **11** camera instruments.

## Dataset description

The NASA Mars Rover Image Catalog contains metadata for every raw image captured by the Perseverance (Mars 2020) and Curiosity (MSL) rovers on the surface of Mars. Perseverance has been exploring Jezero Crater since February 2021, investigating an ancient river delta for signs of past microbial life and caching samples for future Earth return. Curiosity has been climbing Mount Sharp in Gale Crater since August 2012, discovering evidence that Mars once had long-lived lakes and rivers with conditions suitable for life. Together, these rovers have captured over 2 million raw images using a variety of cameras: engineering cameras for navigation and hazard avoidance, science cameras for geological investigation, and specialized instruments like SuperCam and Mastcam-Z. This metadata catalog includes image timestamp, sol number, camera instrument, rover position (XYZ site frame), pointing angles, and download URLs — enabling large-scale analysis of imaging patterns, traverse mapping, and targeted image retrieval without downloading terabytes of raw image data.

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `id` | int | Unique image ID from NASA |
| `mission` | string | Mission identifier: "mars2020" (Perseverance) or "msl" (Curiosity) |
| `sol` | int | Martian sol number (days since landing) |
| `instrument` | string | Camera instrument name |
| `date_taken` | string | UTC datetime when image was captured |
| `date_received` | string | UTC datetime when image was received on Earth |
| `site` | int | Site number along the rover traverse |
| `drive` | int | Drive number within the site |
| `rover_x` | float | Rover X position in site frame (meters) |
| `rover_y` | float | Rover Y position in site frame (meters) |
| `rover_z` | float | Rover Z position in site frame (meters) |
| `mast_azimuth` | float | Mast azimuth angle (degrees) |
| `mast_elevation` | float | Mast elevation angle (degrees) |
| `sample_type` | string | Image sample type (full, subframe, thumbnail) |
| `filter_name` | string | Camera filter name |
| `local_mean_solar_time` | string | Local Mean Solar Time on Mars |
| `image_url` | string | Direct HTTPS URL to download the raw image |
| `is_thumbnail` | bool | Whether this is a thumbnail image |
| `title` | string | Image title/caption |

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

# Load all images
ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/nasa-mars-rover-images", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Perseverance images only
m2020 = df[df["mission"] == "mars2020"]

# Curiosity Mastcam images
mastcam = df[(df["mission"] == "msl") & (df["instrument"].str.contains("MAST", na=False))]

# Images per sol for Perseverance
sol_counts = m2020.groupby("sol").size()
sol_counts.plot(title="Perseverance images per sol")

# Rover traverse (XYZ positions)
positions = m2020.dropna(subset=["rover_x", "rover_y"])
positions.plot.scatter(x="rover_x", y="rover_y", s=0.1, title="Perseverance traverse")
```

## Data source

[NASA Mars Raw Image API](https://mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/). Images are captured by cameras aboard
the Perseverance (Mars 2020) and Curiosity (MSL) rovers and transmitted to Earth via Mars orbiters
and the Deep Space Network.

## Update schedule

Weekly (Monday at 11:00 UTC) via [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets).
Incremental updates fetch only images added since the last run.

## Related datasets

- [esa-exomars-tgo-observations](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/esa-exomars-tgo-observations) -- ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter observations
- [esa-mars-express-observations](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/esa-mars-express-observations) -- ESA Mars Express observations
- [mars-craters-robbins](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/mars-craters-robbins) -- 384K+ Martian impact craters
- [meda-weather](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/meda-weather) -- Perseverance MEDA weather station
- [chemcam](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/chemcam) -- Curiosity ChemCam LIBS spectra

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the [dataset page](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/nasa-mars-rover-images) and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐️ to the [space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets) repo.

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{nasa_mars_rover_images,
  author = {Simon, Julien},
  title = {NASA Mars Rover Image Catalog},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/nasa-mars-rover-images},
  note = {Based on NASA Mars Raw Image API data}
}
```