NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity Pictures 2015: Robot Takes A Selfie On The Red Planet [PHOTOS]
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has debuted its latest selfie, which the space agency assembled from dozens of self-portrait pictures taken by the vehicle’s robotic arm. The composite image shows a sweeping view of Pahrump Hills on the Red Planet, where the six-wheeled robot has been working for five months, according to a press release from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"Compared with the earlier Curiosity selfies, we added extra frames for this one so we could see the rover in the context of the full Pahrump Hills campaign," said rover team member Kathryn Stack in a statement Tuesday.
Curiosity is seen beside the Mojave site, where its drill collected the mission’s second sample from Pahrump Hills for laboratory analysis. Pahrump Hills is an outcrop of the bedrock that forms the base of Mount Sharp at the center of Mars’ Gale Crater.
The component images for Curiosity’s selfie were taken in late January. The rover has since left the Mojave site and driven to another area, Telegraph Peak, where Curiosity drilled and collected sample powder from inside the rock target this week. The target sits in the upper portion of Pahrump Hills, according to a press release from NASA.
Curiosity collected the mission’s first sample in September from a site called Confidence Hills, also visible in the scene. "From the Mojave site, we could include every stop we've made during the campaign,” Stack said in the statement.
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