You think narcissistic selfie-obsessed people only exist on social media? Well now add National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Curiosity to the list. The car-sized robotic rover that explores the Gale Crater on Mars as part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission.
A report on CNN IBN mentioned that the machine used its inbuilt selfie stick to capture the 360 degree low-angle self-portrait of itself sitting in the Marias Pass region of Mars. The machine has been investigating the chemical components of Mars and is currently studying in depth the samples in its internal laboratories. On May 21, it noted that the area was high in silica and hydrogen, while mounting to a site and turned round to have a closer look. After a lot of drilling into the rock it used the lens on its robotic arm to capture multiple photos which were tied together as a selfie at the drilling site.
The selfie has not only clicked the machine but also gathered several component images which were taken by Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on August 5. MAHLI is placed at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. For this selfie, the rover unit positioned the camera lower than the rover body than for any previous full self-portrait of Curiosity. This gave way to a view that includes the rover’s robotic belly.
Panaromic ‘belfies’ have never come out so intergalactically wow-some before!