The NASA rover took its first and most epic selfie with the Ingenuity rover on Mars in April. The rugged SUV-sized cruiser, weighing a tonne, is equipped with 10 cameras and microphones.
In a video released by NASA, Vandy Verma, Chief Engineer of Persevere for Robotic Operations at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shares the complex process behind the historic selfie.
Rover took selfies using the WATSON camera (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Electronic Processing and Engineering). In the NASA video, Ferma explains that the camera is designed to take close-up images of the rock for scientific analysis, and even with the rover’s arms extended, the entire rover is not included in the image.
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It is further stated that the final image is an image created with multiple images grouped together. This photo was created by “keeping the WATSON camera sensor in the same position and taking different photos.”
Verma also says that it can take “up to an hour of arm movement and filming” for the entire selfie.
In the video, he shares answers to the most frequently asked questions after selfies were released, “Why aren’t the robot arms visible in selfies?”
It says the robotic arm moves between the different photo frames, and enough overlap is created between the images that the arm isn’t visible.
The video continues to share what the rover looks like when it takes a selfie.
Watch the video here:
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