The Mars InSight lander has been on its new home planet for a little more than two weeks, and is getting ready for its mission on the red planet. Since the craft's arrival on Mars, it's been preparing for its experiments on the planet's depth.
In the meantime, though, before the craft starts using its instruments to measure various metrics on Mars, it's been taking plenty of photos, including its first selfie. It took one photo when it first landed that shows the surface of Mars, though there was a bit of dust on the camera lens.
Another photo it sent back to Earth shows its 6-foot-long arm extended and ready to set up the instruments for a number of the craft's experiments.
The first full selfie of the craft was released this week by the little lander. InSight shared the photo on Twitter. It's actually 11 photos all put together as a mosaic to form one complete photo of the craft. The photo shows the solar panel and the deck as well, with all the scientific instruments at the ready.
In addition to the actual selfie of the craft, it also sent images that, when combined, showed the craft's work space, which will house the craft's scientific instruments to be used later in the mission. The purple line on the image indicates where the seismometer and the heat flow probe will be.
Those working on ground control haven't decided where the instruments should exactly go yet, and will use the photos InSight sends back to Earth to guide them.
The heat-flow probe will have to burrow into the surface of the planet to a depth of 16 feet. The craft's landing spot makes that task easier, but it's still up to the crew to determine the best place in that area.
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