After it’s retired from space exploration, NASA’s Curiosity rover could find a new career in photography.
A fresh selfie, snapped by the spacecraft on Oct. 11 at Glen Etive, is impressive not only for its scope and framing.
The panorama was stitched together from 57 individual images taken by a camera on the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm.
It also commemorates the second-ever time the rover has performed a special chemistry experiment.
From its perch in Glen Etive (“Glen EH-tiv”)—part of the “clay-bearing unit,” a region the mission team has long anticipated reaching—you can see two holes Curiosity drilled: creatively named Glen Etive 1 (right) and Glen Etive 2 (left).
The rover, according to NASA, can analyze the chemical composition of rock samples by powderizing them with a drill, then dropping the samples into a portable lab in its belly called Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM).
SAM then heats the samples, “sniffing” the gases that bake off, looking for chemicals that hold clues about the Martian environment billions of years ago.
The gadget is also capable of special “wet chemistry” experiments, which make it easier to detect certain organic compounds important to the formation of life.
Glen Etive marks the second time Curiosity has performed wet chemistry since touching down on Mars in August 2012.
“We’ve been eager to find an area that would be compelling enough to do wet chemistry,” SAM Principal Investigator Paul Mahaffy, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. “Now that we’re in the clay-bearing unit, we’ve finally got it.”
Clay-based rocks are good at preserving chemical compounds, which break down over time. Understanding how this area formed will give the science team a better idea of how the Martian climate was changing billions of years ago.
The results will be known next year.
“SAM’s data is extremely complex and takes time to interpret,” according to Mahaffy. “But we’re all eager to see what we can learn from this new location.”
The car-sized rover, built to explore the Gale crater on Mars, was launched in November 2011; in December 2012, Curiosity’s two-year mission was extended indefinitely. The spacecraft is still operational, and, as of Oct. 25, has been on Mars for 2566 sols (2636 Earth days).
Curiosity’s design serves as the basis for the planned Mars 2020 rover, which will carry different scientific instruments.
More on Geek.com:
- NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds ‘Ancient Oasis’ on Mars
- NASA’s Curiosity Detects Highest-Ever Volume of Methane on Mars
- NASA’s Curiosity Rover Snaps Images of Fluffy Clouds on Mars
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