What is Curiosity's dry mass?

Curiosity’s dry mass is 899 kilograms. That figure describes the rover itself, including its scientific instruments, rather than the entire Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft that carried it to Mars.

Curiosity is a car-sized, six-wheeled rover built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Mars Science Laboratory mission. Its mass is often also reported as about 1,982 pounds in Earth gravity. On Mars, the same rover would weigh only about 337 kilograms-force because Mars has weaker gravity, but its mass remains 899 kilograms.

A common mix-up is with Perseverance, the later Mars 2020 rover, which has a mass of about 1,025 kilograms. Another is confusing Curiosity’s rover mass with the much larger launch-and-landing spacecraft, which included the cruise stage, entry system, descent stage, and fuel.

The rover’s size and mass helped it carry a sophisticated payload: cameras, a robotic arm, a drill, a laser spectrometer, and internal laboratories. These instruments let Curiosity study Gale crater’s rocks, soil, atmosphere, and past habitability.