Curiosity Snaps 'Arm's Length' Self Portrait

astroengine writes "Using its robotic arm-mounted MAHLI camera, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has snapped, quite possibly, the most iconic image to come from the mission so far. By stitching together 55 high-resolution photos, the rover has snapped an 'arm's length' self portrait, capturing its location in the geologically interesting area known as 'Rocknest,' including its recent scoop marks in the Martian soil and the base of Mt. Sharp." Note to NASA: Please sell this image in the form of a fundraising poster.

Re:Where is the arm?

[Barryke]

Apparently it is attached to the rover by the horizontal cylinder shaped appendix between the front wheels.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/uploads/RTEmagicC_Msl-arm.jpg.jpg [thenakedscientists.com]

Also google for "mars curiosity arm" theres some really nice pictures there.

Thirty-five megapixel version

[Anonymous Coward]

5463 x 7595 pixels (width x height) [nasa.gov]

Original Caption Released with Image:

        On Sol 84 (Oct. 31, 2012), NASA's Curiosity rover used the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to capture this set of 55 high-resolution images, which were stitched together to create this full-color self-portrait.

        The mosaic shows the rover at "Rocknest," the spot in Gale Crater where the mission's first scoop sampling took place. Four scoop scars can be seen in the regolith in front of the rover.

        The base of Gale Crater's 3-mile-high (5-kilometer) sedimentary mountain, Mount Sharp, rises on the right side of the frame. Mountains in the background to the left are the northern wall of Gale Crater. The Martian landscape appears inverted within the round, reflective ChemCam instrument at the top of the rover's mast.

        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.

        This high-resolution mosaic is a more detailed version of the low-resolution version created with thumbnail images, at PIA16238.

        JPL manages the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

        For more about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl, http://www.nasa.gov/mars, and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.
Image Credit:
        NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
        2012-11-01

Re:Why are there footprints...

[White Flame]

Those are the little trenches where it was scooping soil samples.

Re:Where is the arm?

[Ford Prefect]

Top-left here [nasa.gov].

(Of note - the raw images got released quite a few hours before the official stitched version did. So a bunch of amateurs including myself [hylobatidae.org] and others [unmannedspaceflight.com] used various panorama-assembling software to assemble our own, unofficial stitched versions. Seeing Curiosity like this before pretty much everyone else was great...)

Note to Slashdot

[fustakrakich]

Please don't don't try to 'sell' page hits. Use the source [nasa.gov]...

Re:Where is the arm?

[Janek Kozicki]

Top-left here [nasa.gov].

Thanks! Now I see that the arm has indeed been removed by using other photos. And also in this place on the stiched photo there is a small inconsitency.