NASA's Curiosity rover completes a Martian year - which is equivalent to 687 Earth days - on June 24 and to celebrate its stay on the Red Planet, the rover has taken a selfie!
The nuclear-powered Curiosity rover first set foot on Mars two years ago. The rover was launched as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL), from Cape Canaveral on Nov. 26, 2011, and landed on Aeolis Palus (or Mount Sharp) in Gale Crater on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012.
"What a long, strange trip (around the sun) it's been. Here's what happened during my 1st #MartianYear," says the Curiosity Rover's Twitter handle @MarsCuriosity and gives a YouTube video link to see its journey.
Since it landed in Aug. 2012, the six-wheeled rover has played a pivotal role in making groundbreaking findings, which have aided researchers in understanding if Mars' environmental conditions were conducive to have ever supported microbial life on the planet.
NASA's Curiosity rover has also been instrumental in discovering a lakebed in the Yellowknife region after it drilled into the Gale Crater. NASA averred that the lakebed contained called "essential elemental ingredients for life."
So how did Curiosity take a selfie? It simply deployed the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera positioned at the end of its robotic arm to take several pictures and then combined them to form a self-portrait. However, the image does not include Curiosity's robotic arm.
The selfie shows off the holes which the rover drilled into a sandstone rock called "Windjana," which is inside a science waypoint site called "The Kimberley."
"Most of the component frames of this mosaic view were taken during the 613th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (April 27, 2014). Frames showing Windjana after completion of the drilling were taken on Sol 627 (May 12, 2014). The hole was drilled on Sol 621 (May 5, 2014)," per NASA.
Even though the Curiosity rover has finished its Mars mission, which was initially set to last one Martian year, NASA has extended the mission till the wheels of the rover continue operating.
If you want to follow the mission on Twitter head here and for Facebook check here.
Check out the Curiosity rover's Mars journey in the video below.
