one that could fly!

Poetry.

How did Curiosity do that selfie? The only part of the rover that is not in view is the edge of the wheel. Shouldn't there be an "arm" or something sticking out of the frame?

I'm sure there is something I'm missing - could someone please point it out?

Bemusedly unenlightened here!

I am a child of the space age and thrill at the idea that we are doing at least some exploration of other worlds . . . I just noticed this and wondered how the picture was taken.

I have no clue, but that would be my guess.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/14/nasa_explains_curioisty_self_portraits/

It just pointed the camera at the bathroom mirror.

I'll go and ask the people at the NASA website.

Ok a few

1. It's aliens
2. Another rover
3. An arm that attaches to the arm the wheel is attached to.

Crap it was photoshop all along

Mars Rover: "I'm here alone!" *wink wink*

There's a very small camera lens aimed at a very small curved mirror on Curiosity. AFAIK there's not two vehicles.

eta: OK I was wrong. See here.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/14/nasa_explains_curioisty_self_portraits/



NASA has published a long and detailed explanation of just how its Curiosity rover managed to take a self-portrait.

The agency has posted a video, which we've popped at the bottom of the story, and lengthy text explanations of the way it assembled the shot below.

NASA says “Curiosity held the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera in more than 50 positions in one day to generate a single scene combining all the images, creating a high-resolution, full-color portrait of the rover itself.”

Here's the resulting mosaic self-portrait.

I knew there was an explanation!



Now I'll just go off in a corner and mutter about not being able to ask a simple question without having a load of snark fired in response . . . and have another cup of coffee to approach being human this morning. mutter grumble . . .

"My friend's friend lives 1 hour away from where that shot was taken!"

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20121211b.html

PASADENA, Calif. - The robotic arm on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity held the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera in more than 50 positions in one day to generate a single scene combining all the images, creating a high-resolution, full-color portrait of the rover itself.

A larger version of the previously released self-portrait is now available online, along with an animation video showing how it was taken, and a practice self-portrait taken earlier by Curiosity's test-rover double on Earth.

The new version of Curiosity's self-portrait, online at: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16457 , shows more of the surrounding Martian terrain than a version completed last month.

The animation video at: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=156880341 depicts how the rover moved its robotic arm on Oct. 31 to record the component images that would be combined into the self-portrait. The same software that rover planners use when designing the rover's moves was used to generate the animation.

(From one of the best shitty movies ever made)