Perseverance Selfie with Ingenuity
Explanation:
On the Mars rover's mission Sol 46 or Earth date April 6, 2021,
Perseverance held out a robotic arm to take
its first selfie on Mars.
The WATSON camera at the end of the arm
was designed to take close-ups of Martian rocks and
surface details though, and not a quick snap shot of friends and
smiling faces.
In the end,
teamwork and weeks of planning on Mars time
was required to program a complex series of
exposures and camera motions to include Perseverance and its
surroundings.
The resulting 62 frames were composed into a detailed mosaic,
one of the most complicated Mars rover selfies ever taken.
In this version of the
selfie, the rover's
Mastcam-Z and SuperCam instruments are looking
toward WATSON and the end of the rover's outstretched arm.
About 4 meters (13 feet) from Perseverance is a robotic companion,
the Mars Ingenuity helicopter.
Perseverance has now spent over 1,500 sols
exploring the surface
of the Red Planet.
On Earth date January 18, 2024, Ingenuity made its 72nd and
final flight through the thin Martian atmosphere.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
