The Martian Selfie

Insight send selfie from 548 million kms away

NASA’s latest Martian lander Insight travelled 548 million kms and took a selfie. Insight, that stand for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigation, Geodesy and Heat Transport is NASA’s first ever spacecraft designed to explore the deep interior of Mars.

The Martian selfie had a picture captioned – ‘First Selfie! I’m feeling healthy, energized and whole. This is me on Mars ‘

The spacecraft used a camera placed on its arm to take the selfie. The image processing techniques is same as the one used in Curiosity rover mission.

Insight took its first step on the red planet on 26 November 2018 and is out to explore. It will spend 24 months i.e., about one Martian year on the planet.

In the coming days scientists and engineers will discuss on where to place the robot. They will command Insight to place seismograph – which measures ground motions and heat flow probe in chosen places. The lander uses cutting edge instruments, which reaches deep beneath the surface and seek the fingerprints studying the process of terrestrial planet formations. Studying Mars interior structure may reveal the early formation of planets in our solar system.

Upcoming event

To know more about Insight and other Mars rovers, NASA is giving away free public lecture on Mars, including Insight landing its research updates, Curiosity drilling, storm that hit the Opportunity and all secrets about future Mars rover. This free lecture will broadcast live on January 10, 7 pm PST.

For all the space enthusiast from India, the live stream timing is January 11, 8:30 am IST. 
Save the Date!

Insight rover Image credit: NASA
Article by Moumita Mazumdar

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