NASA / JPL - Caltech / MSSS
Curiosity Update... I recently stumbled upon the interesting photo (above) taken of Curiosity's replica (known as the Vehicle System Test Bed rover) inside the In Situ Instrument Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California. The pic was taken using an engineering model of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera employed on the actual rover. Located at the tip of Curiosity's 7-foot-long robotic arm, MAHLI's movements were first rehearsed on the engineering model to ensure that the arm would not be visible in the official self-portrait achieved on the Red Planet. As seen with the image below, JPL engineers did a terrific job positioning MAHLI in ways that gave the impression that Curiosity was indeed photographed by a separate source. One wonders when the day will come where a separate source (RE: an astronaut) will actually stand before Curiosity and photograph the one-ton, nuclear-powered laboratory in person...
NASA / JPL - Caltech / MSSS
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