How NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover Takes a Selfie

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover takes a lot of selfies. These images are used to preserve the scene where the rover drilled samples from the surface. But have you ever wondered what these selfies look like from Curiosity’s point of view? And why the rover’s arm isn’t in the picture? This video shows Curiosity taking a selfie at the “Hutton“ drill site on Feb. 26, 2020 (the 2,687th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). A total of 86 images were taken and later stitched into a panorama (the final selfie). The video was taken with one of Curiosity’s black and white Navigation Cameras on the rover’s mast. It shows the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera that Curiosity uses to take all its selfies. At the very end, you can see MAHLI’s cover closing, which protects it from Martian dust. Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech