News

Selfies tend to get a bum rap from serious photographers these days, but you really have to love the latest self-portraits beamed back to Earth by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover with Mount Sharp in the background.

The selfies serve an important purpose (besides making the rover a social media icon); they enable NASA to keep tabs on the status and condition of the stalwart rover. The photo below shows Curiosity facing forward.

The images, from NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS were captured last month and just released. They show Curiosity posing before a drill site where the rover took samples enabling scientists to study the red planet’s geology.

NASA regularly posts amazing shots from space in a multimedia gallery on their website. The photo below is another self-portrait taken by Curiosity—this one looking backward.

Since landing on Mars in 2012, Curiosity has been taking photos and gathering information while exploring sand dunes, craters and other areas of interest. Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada says the rover is about to take on the challenging of actually climbing the mountain. Summit photos to come!