NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded the component images for this self-portrait about three weeks before completing a decade of work on Mars.

January 23, 2014

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded the component images for this self-portrait about three weeks before completing a decade of work on Mars. The rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) took the images during the interval Jan. 3, 2014, to Jan. 6, 2014, a few days after winds removed some of the dust that had been accumulating on the rover's solar panels.

Opportunity landed on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time (Jan. 24, 2004, PST) for a mission that was planned to last three months. It is still active 10 Earth years later.

This image is presented as a vertical projection. The mast on which the Pancam is mounted does not appear in the image, though its shadow does.

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

ENLARGE

You Might Also Like