Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Two months have passed since the Perseverance rover landed on Mars, and the world seems it still can’t get enough of the thing. Every inch it travels, every piece of hardware that comes online, everything it sees, all is hungrily absorbed by all of us. And that’s the way it should be, given the mission’s importance for the planet's future exploration plans.
But, caught up as we are with what Perseverance is doing, we all but forgot there’s another rover still operational on Mars: Curiosity. A machine that, between the passing of Opportunity at the hands of a massive Martian dust storm in 2018 and the Perseverance’s arrival this year, was all alone up there, keeping us in the loop with dust devils, martian clay, or Mars’ two moons.
This week, Curiosity decided to remind us it’s still out there and sent back an impressive selfie of itself as it sits at its new drilling location, a 20 feet (6 meters) outcrop of rock aptly called Mont Mercou.
NASA published the selfie saying it is composed of 60 images taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument on March 26. An additional 11 images, taken by the vehicle's Mastcam, were also thrown into the composition.
Curiosity is a machine about the size of a car, riding on 20-inch (50.8 cm) wheels capable of passing over obstacles up to 25 inches (65 centimeters) high. It landed on Mars in 2012 and has been operational ever since. Its main contributions to our larger understanding of the neighboring planet include the fact it discovered conditions were once right up there for the presence of organic life. It also found active, ancient organic chemistry.
Curiosity is the last surviving member of the trio of rovers sent to Mars before Perseverance. Spirit was active for six years, from 2004 to 2010, while Opportunity from 2004 to 2018.
This week, Curiosity decided to remind us it’s still out there and sent back an impressive selfie of itself as it sits at its new drilling location, a 20 feet (6 meters) outcrop of rock aptly called Mont Mercou.
NASA published the selfie saying it is composed of 60 images taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument on March 26. An additional 11 images, taken by the vehicle's Mastcam, were also thrown into the composition.
Curiosity is a machine about the size of a car, riding on 20-inch (50.8 cm) wheels capable of passing over obstacles up to 25 inches (65 centimeters) high. It landed on Mars in 2012 and has been operational ever since. Its main contributions to our larger understanding of the neighboring planet include the fact it discovered conditions were once right up there for the presence of organic life. It also found active, ancient organic chemistry.
Curiosity is the last surviving member of the trio of rovers sent to Mars before Perseverance. Spirit was active for six years, from 2004 to 2010, while Opportunity from 2004 to 2018.
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