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NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover captures a selfie to mark a full Martian year — 687 Earth days — spent exploring the Red Planet. Curiosity Self-Portrait was taken at the ‘Windjana’ Drilling Site in April and May 2014 using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm. Note two drill holes at lower left. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity rover celebrated a milestone anniversary today, June 24 – 1 Martian Year on Mars!
A Martian year is equivalent to 687 Earth days, or nearly two Earth years.
NASA marked the illustrious achievement with the release of a new ‘selfie’ captured recently while drilling deep into the Red Planet to unlock the secrets of Mars hidden past eons ago when the planet was far warmer and wetter and more conducive to the origin of life.
Curiosity’s new self-portrait was taken at the ‘Windjana’ Drilling Site in April and May 2014 using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm.
As of today the 1 ton rover has been exploring the alien surface for a full Martian year since her nail biting touchdown inside Gale Crater on Aug. 5, 2012 – using the unprecedented sky crane maneuver which culminated in a rocket assisted touchdown astride a humongous mountain named Mount Sharp.
Mount Sharp dominates the center of Gale Crater and reaches 3.4 miles (5.5 km) into the Martian sky – taller than Mount Rainier.
During Mars Year 1 on Mars, Earth’s metallic emissary has already accomplished her primary objective of discovering a habitable zone on the Red Planet that contains the chemical ingredients necessary to support microbial life in the ancient past.
Curiosity rover panorama of Mount Sharp captured on June 6, 2014 (Sol 651) during traverse inside Gale Crater. Note rover wheel tracks at left. She will eventually ascend the mountain at the ‘Murray Buttes’ at right later this year. Assembled from Mastcam color camera raw images and stitched by Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer-kenkremer.com
During 2013, Curiosity conducted the first two drill campaigns at the ‘John Klein’ and ‘Cumberland’ outcrop targets inside Yellowknife Bay. They were both mudstone rock outcrops and the interiors were markedly different in color and much lighter compared to the new drill site at ‘Windjana’ into a slab of red, sandstone rock.
The fresh bore hole was drilled into the “Windjana” rock outcrop on May 5, 2014, Sol 621, at the base of Mount Remarkable at a science stopping point called “The Kimberley Waypoint.”
It was 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter and about 2.6 inches (6.5 centimeters) deep and resulted in a mound of dark grey colored drill tailings piled around.
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