A NASA Mars rover launched in 2011 November which landed in 2012 August inside a crater called Gale. Curiosity took colour stereo pictures with its Mast Camera (Mastcam) which showed signs of ancient sediments laid down by water in the past. Its Chemistry and Camera instrument (ChemCam) fires laser pulses at rocks and analyses the vaporized gases with a spectrometer. A robotic arm with a drill collects surface samples for analysis by the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments, looking for the chemicals associated with life. The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) is an onboard weather station.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html Official mission website.