Rover's Mars selfie

[NJCher]

August 22, 2015
NASA's Curiosity rover used its MAHLI camera mounted on a robotic arm to capture this 360-degree selfie of the vehicle sitting above the "Buckskin" rock target. After drilling into the rock there, the rover snapped multiple images which were stitched together into a sweeping panorama of the drilling site located in the Marias Pass region. Curiosity has departed the area and is now heading southwest to its next mission. More details at NASA.gov.


Cher

[longship]

1. The selfies never include the robot arm.

The MAHLI camera is on the arm (along with a lot of other stuff) so the selfies never include it.

And BTW, it is one serious piece of equipment.

This photo was taken during testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on June 3, 2011 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm holds five devices. In this view, the drill is at the six o'clock position. The next device clockwise is the Collection and Handling for In-situ Martian Rock Analysis device, or CHIMRA. It includes a soil scoop and a set of chambers and labyrinths for sieving, sorting and portioning samples of rock powder or soil for delivery to analytical instruments. At the 10 o'clock position is the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). Behind the forearm are the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and the Dust Removal Tool (DRT). All told, the turret alone weighs 34 kilograms -- three times more than the total mass of the first Mars rover, Sojourner (11.5 kg).

Here's Emily Lakdawalla's latest article on this shot.(in depth article):
The Story Behind Curiosity's Self-Portraits

How and why does Curiosity take self-portraits? A look at some of the people and stories behind Curiosity's "selfies" on the occasion of the official release of the sol 1065 belly pan self-portrait at Buckskin, below Marias Pass, Mars.

R&K

[tclambert]

2. It's a heavy-duty selfie stick.

[Bonobo]

3. Man, that is a great photo! nt

[BlueJazz]

4. I believe this proves somebody is lying to us. That white animal is the foreground looks...

... suspiciously like a bunny rabbit....and he's chasing some sort of mouse-thing.

[loudsue]

5. That mountain looks like it's full of holes....sink hole-type holes.

Looks like a bee hive.