NASA’s InSight Lander Is Already Snapping Amazing Pictures of Mars

NASA’s InSight Lander Is Already Snapping Amazing Pictures of Mars

5 years ago
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https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xp8wg/nasas-insight-lander-is-already-snapping-amazing-pictures-of-mars

Shortly after it successfully touched down on Mars on Monday, NASA’s InSight lander took a selfie showing off its new home in the Elysium Planitia region. The picture was taken by the mission’s Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), mounted on the lander’s robotic arm, and captures the upper deck of InSight’s instrument package, against a backdrop of flat Martian terrain.

Though it was InSight’s first selfie on the red planet, it was not the first picture the lander sent back to Earth. Just minutes after its nail-biting touchdown, InSight sent a quick landscape shot home to the mission control team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.