Photographed by Aliens: Mars rover "Curiosity" self portrait?

This photo can cheer moon landing skeptics: It almost looks as if the Mars rover "Curiosity" is not a self-portrait shot himself. After all, no robot arm is seen in the picture, so if you have made the picture? Is this evidence of intelligent life on Mars? Or an older Mars project sparks now but again, which took up the high resolution images for "Curiosity"?

So similar to Google's Photosphere combines the Mahli (Mars Hand Lens Imager), a total of 64 individual images to a large composite image with spatial curvature.

If you look closely, you will also recognize the top third a very subtle color fringing, which reveals the technique a little.

The self-portrait of the Curiosity Rovers

But as this fact explains the lack of photographers now? It is this: The Mars Hand Lens Imager, thanks to the variety of possible rotations and orientations of the camera along with the robotic arm is not shown in the picture because he was not actually see on the relevant image sections.

So we see a composite recording (a bit like a photo mosaic) from different moments that can disappear in sum the camera arm. The camera arm works equally similar to our human model - two long segments (also forearm and upper arm) to be called is connected to a elbow joint. The shoulder joint allows raising, lowering and rotation.

In the picture, the rover is on a flat piece of rock called "John Klein" in Yellowknife Bay - at the same time this will be the first drilling location for our Mars robot. Meanwhile, drilling operations are expected to be underway and Curiosity will gather first detailed samples.

Wednesday had a first mini-test drilling, where about 2 centimeters deep was drilled into the rock of the planet Mars. The preliminary analysis of the obtained thereby ended dust sample pointed to one or more humid periods in this region of the planet.

Since Curiosity practically a traveling laboratory drill, camera and various analysis means (there are 10 instruments), these samples are of course now also serve other conclusions about the environmental factors in the past and present of the red planet.

The first real hole of Curiosity is incidentally also the first real hole on Mars. In the next 2 years will be investigated especially if the red planet in the area of ​​the Gale Crater could ever provide the necessary parameters for microbial life forms.

The Mars probe HiRISE shot the way a color photo of Curiosity on the surface of the planet - almost a bird's eye of the universe.

I think it's still worth noting that we have a 899 kg heavy vehicle with RTG ​​(depending on the state of the orbit is 54.6 to 401 million) power source and a mobile laboratory equipment on an approximately 225 million kilometers have dropped off planet without it destroying it, and so now comfortably explore our planetary neighbors and drill.

NASA , NASA , via Planetary (Images: NASA JPL and Caltech)