Take a Peek Inside Curiosity’s Shell

[/caption]

Take a look around Curiosity’s cozy cabin! Ok, there’s really not much to see (she didn’t get a window seat) but when the image above was taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on April 20, the spacecraft she’s tucked into was just over 120 million km (74 million miles) from Earth, en route to Mars. In other words, just past those blurry components and outside that dark shell is real outer space… that’s cool!

This color image was planned by the MSL team, used to confirm that MAHLI is operating as it should. The two green dots are reflections of the camera’s LED lights, and the rusty-orange out-of-focus parts are cables. The silver thing is a bracket holding said cables.

So why is this fancy camera taking blurry pictures (and the folks at NASA are happy about it?) Since MAHLI is designed to take both close-up images of rocks on Mars as well as landscape shots, it has a focusing motor. But when it’s not in use — such as during its current 11-month-long cruise to Mars — the motor puts the focusing lens into a safe position to protect it from damage during launch, entry and landing.

Where is Curiosity now?

Positioned this way, MAHLI can only focus on objects 2 cm (less than an inch) away from its lens, and there simply aren’t any inside the capsule.

Of course, once Curiosity arrives at Mars and completes her exciting landing at Gale Crater, MAHLI will have plenty of things to take pictures of! Until then we’ll be patient, it can take a rest and we can rest assured that it’s working just fine.

Keep up with the latest news from the Mars Science Laboratory team here.

Labeled parts of the MSL rover (NASA/Kim Shiflett; cropping/annotation by Malin Space Science Systems)

San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) built and operates the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard the Curiosity Mars rover. MSSS also built and operates the rover’s Mastcams and Mars Descent Imager. Read more about their contributions to Curiosity’s exploration mission here.

Jason Major

A graphic designer in Rhode Island, Jason writes about space exploration on his blog Lights In The Dark, Discovery News, and, of course, here on Universe Today. Ad astra!

Recent Posts

Fly Slowly Through Enceladus' Plumes to Detect Life

Enceladus is blasting water into space from the jets at its southern pole. This makes…

4 hours ago

OSIRIS-REx Failed to Deploy its Drogue Chute Properly. Now NASA has Figured out Why

On September 24, 2023, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned a precious sample of rocky material from…

6 hours ago

In 1872, a Solar Storm Hit the Earth Generating Auroras from the Tropics to the Poles

Imagine a solar storm generating auroral displays across the entire sky. No, we haven't quite…

23 hours ago

For its Final Trick, Chandrayaan-3 Brings its Propulsion Module to Earth Orbit

On August 23, ISRO's Vikram lander detached from its propulsion module and made a soft…

1 day ago

ESA’s Ariel Mission is Approved to Begin Construction

We're about to learn a lot more about exoplanets. The ESA has just approved the…

1 day ago

Communicating With a Relativistic Spacecraft Gets Pretty Weird

Someday, in the not-too-distant future, humans may send robotic probes to explore nearby star systems.…

1 day ago