Curiosity is catalogued in this registry as a probe, held in the frame of Earth, from GCAT — artificial space objects.
Registry id GCAT_S37936 ·
source layer gcat ·
provenance PROCESSED — derived deterministically from source catalogues (unit, frame and epoch conversions, cross-source reconciliation) — no value invented
Exists from 2011-11-26 15:02:00 UTC (JD 2455892.12639) — no end date is recorded.
Open Curiosity in the live scene → The scene composes a position for any date and is where a figure becomes a picture. It downloads the whole catalogue first: measured against the built product, an object outside the core resolves after about 16 s over a local network and about 147 s over a 4 Mbit link, having transferred roughly 70 MB. If you cannot wait that long, this page is the answer.
| Quantity | Value | Uncertainty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radius | 1.5 m | no published uncertainty in this registry | GCAT — artificial space objects |
| Mass | 899 kg | no published uncertainty in this registry | GCAT — artificial space objects |
Each row carries its own uncertainty and its own source. Where a row says no uncertainty is published, that is what the catalogue says — it is not a claim that the value is exact.
This object's parent frame changes over its life. Each leg names the frame it is expressed in and the source arc it came from. A leg with no geometry is a declared gap — the registry holds no path across it and draws none. This object has 243 legs; the table shows the first and last 12 and counts the rest.
| From | To | Frame | Geometry | Source arc |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-11-26 15:44:00 UTC (JD 2455892.1555555556) | 2011-12-01 12:15:59 UTC (JD 2455897.011111111) | EARTH | no geometry in this leg | satcat |
| 2011-12-01 12:15:59 UTC (JD 2455897.011111111) | 2012-08-02 18:00:00 UTC (JD 2456142.25) | SOL | orbit | hcocat |
| 2011-12-01 12:16:00 UTC (JD 2455897.0111121107) | open-ended | SOL | orbit | horizons |
| 2011-12-11 12:15:00 UTC (JD 2455907.010416667) | open-ended | SOL | orbit | horizons |
| 2011-12-21 12:15:00 UTC (JD 2455917.010416667) | open-ended | SOL | orbit | horizons |
| 2011-12-31 12:15:00 UTC (JD 2455927.010416667) | open-ended | SOL | orbit | horizons |
| 2012-01-10 12:15:00 UTC (JD 2455937.010416667) | open-ended | SOL | orbit | horizons |
| 2012-01-20 12:15:00 UTC (JD 2455947.010416667) | open-ended | SOL | orbit | horizons |
| 2012-01-30 12:15:00 UTC (JD 2455957.010416667) | open-ended | SOL | orbit | horizons |
| 2012-02-09 12:15:00 UTC (JD 2455967.010416667) | open-ended | SOL | orbit | horizons |
| 2012-02-19 12:15:00 UTC (JD 2455977.010416667) | open-ended | SOL | orbit | horizons |
| 2012-02-29 12:15:00 UTC (JD 2455987.010416667) | open-ended | SOL | orbit | horizons |
| … 219 further legs omitted here. The registry holds all 243; the scene draws them. | ||||
| 2025-07-02 07:45:21 UTC (JD 2460858.823162361) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2025-07-13 15:00:48 UTC (JD 2460870.125566111) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2025-08-08 07:30:30 UTC (JD 2460895.812847361) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2025-08-26 19:23:04 UTC (JD 2460914.3076898614) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2025-09-24 13:51:31 UTC (JD 2460943.077444861) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2025-10-13 01:44:05 UTC (JD 2460961.572287361) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2026-02-22 14:50:52 UTC (JD 2461094.118658611) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2026-03-13 02:43:26 UTC (JD 2461112.613501111) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2026-03-27 11:57:39 UTC (JD 2461126.998378611) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2026-04-13 23:10:39 UTC (JD 2461144.465729861) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2026-06-03 07:30:26 UTC (JD 2461194.812801111) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| 2026-06-10 12:07:32 UTC (JD 2461202.005239861) | open-ended | MARS | fixed position | surface |
| Kind | probe |
|---|---|
| Origin | artificial (made by humans) |
| Operating nation | USA |
| Operator class | governmental |
| Launch site code | CC |
| Launch vehicle | Atlas V 541 |
| Launch outcome | success |
| UN registration | registered with the United Nations — USA · ST/SG/SER.E/645 |
| Planetary protection | target Mars · contact class surface · COSPAR category IVa under the policy in force at launch (IVa under the 2026 policy) · documentation: undocumented — a DOCUMENTATION fact, never a compliance verdict |
| Separated from | GCAT_A07958 on 2011-11-26 15:44:00 UTC (JD 2455892.1555555556) |
S37936 #37936 2011-070A · aka MSL · JPL/US · mfr LMSSD · bus Mars · op EEO · tot 3839 kg · category PLAN · class C · program Mars Program · a/e/i GCAT; Ω,ω,M₀ not in GCAT → placeholder spread (ω = 0; display only) [GCAT] · position from horizons (rank 3); hcocat also covers this period and is not retained, because it is the lower class (rank 1) — the not-retained set is hcocat epoch 2012-01-01, a=1.2605 au e=0.2186 i=1.67°, covering 2011-12-01..2012-08-02 [JPL Horizons] · carries an on-board nuclear power source [nuclear: rtg unspecified]: nuclear power source (device not named by the source) + 1 × MMRTG — declared by UN Online Index of Objects Launched into Outer Space (UNOOSA) + NASA Radioisotope Power Systems Program (NASA/DOE) (A/AC.105/1012) · decides on board [autonomy: onboard-target-selection]: chooses its own observation targets — AEGIS — Chooses its own ChemCam targets from imagery taken after a drive, in the gap where no ground team has yet seen the scene. [Francis et al. 2017]
Reproduced as the source wrote it. Author-year citations link to their DOI where one is registered.
These are absences in the catalogues aggregated here, not measurements of zero, and not statements that the quantity is unknown to science:
| Database | GCAT — artificial space objects |
|---|---|
| Authority | GCAT — General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects (J. McDowell) |
| Address | https://planet4589.org/space/gcat/tsv |
| Licence | CC-BY 4.0 — https://planet4589.org/space/gcat/ |
| How it entered | RAW snapshot via scripts/ingest-gcat.ts |
| Snapshot | 2026-06-09 |
| Coverage | 54,915 objects; 1138 multisegment; 349 landed; debris archived, off by default; 1,797 failed-to-orbit objects placed at their launch sites (existence-windowed to their fall); uncatalogued (CSO/analyst) objects included; 36 marked-erroneous (ERR) phantom entries skipped; 20,196 carry a MEASURED Ω/ω/M₀ from a Celestrak GP join, the rest a deterministic placeholder spread; launch log joined by Launch_Tag → site:/lv:/outcome: facets on 54,557 objects (54,508 with minute-precise launch time); 99 deep-space trajectories refined by JPL Horizons navigation arcs (piecewise osculating elements, heliocentric cruise spans only) |
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