The Curiosity Rover's Ultimate Self-Portrait

By Nancy Atkinson - November 02, 2012 02:06 AM UTC | Planetary Science

The Curiosity rover self portrait. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

OK, we thought the low-resolution

self-portrait from yesterday

was great... but here's the real goods: a monster, high-resolution awesome mosaic of 55 images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), showing the rover at its spot in Gale Crater -- called Rocknest -- with the base of Gale Crater's 5-kilometer- (3-mile-) high mountain, Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp, rising in the background. The images were taken on Sol 84 (Oct. 31, 2012), and sent to Earth today. In the foreground, four scoop scars can be seen in the regolith in front of the rover. As we mentioned about the previous MAHLI mosaic, the arm was moved for each of the 55 images, so the arm and the camera doesn't show up, just like any photographer behind the camera (or their arms) isn't visible in a photograph.

You can get access to the full resolution version

at this link.

It's amazing.

But that's not all...

NASA says that self-portraits like this one document the state of the rover and allow mission engineers to track changes over time, such as dust accumulation and wheel wear. Due to its location on the end of the robotic arm, only MAHLI (among the rover's 17 cameras) is able to image some parts of the craft, including the port-side wheels.

Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Blog

talks about the projection issue, where the wheel closest to the front looks big and distorted. That's a factor of the camera angle and Emily mentions a discussion of this is taking place by the image wizards over at

Unmanned Spaceflight

, if you want to see the various ways to deal with this issue.

Emily also points out how the rover photographed itself photographing itself -- due to the reflective surfaces on the turret, so

check out her analysis.

You can always see the raw images coming in from Curiosity

at this NASA website.

But the other cool thing is that another whole set of images was taken from a slightly different angle, which means only one thing: 3-D! Here's

Stu Atkinson's

first quick attempt:

There will surely be some refinements of the 3-D version, but enjoy this one for now!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com