NASA's Curiosity Rover Snaps new 'Selfie' On Mars
This self-portrait of NASA's
Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at "Namib Dune," where the
rover's activities included scuffing into the dune with a wheel and scooping
samples of sand for laboratory analysis.
The scene combines 57 images taken
on Jan. 19, 2016, during the 1,228th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work
on Mars. The camera used for this is the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at the
end of the rover's robotic arm.
Namib Dune is part of the dark-sand
"Bagnold Dune Field" along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp.
Images taken from orbit have shown that dunes in the Bagnold field move as much
as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year.
The view does not include the
rover's arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to
acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot
in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This
process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity
self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites.
For scale, the rover's wheels are
20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters)
wide.
MAHLI was built by Malin Space
Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science
Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL
designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.