First and last Insight selfies on Mars
First and last Insight selfies on Mars
These are the first and last complete selfies of NASA's InSight lander on Mars. They show the solar panels and the lander's deck with and without Martian dust. The first selfie, in which the solar panels are still completely dust-free, was taken on 6 December 2018 (Sol 10). The selfie consists of 11 images taken by the Instrument Deployment Camera at the elbow of the robot arm. These images were then stitched together into a mosaic. The deck is still covered by the scientific instruments that were deployed later on the ground, as well as the weather sensor booms and the UHF antenna. The last selfie was taken on 24 April 2022, the 1211th Mars day of the mission. The lander is now covered with much more dust than in its first selfie. As InSight's dust-covered solar cells produced less and less energy, the team moved the lander's robotic arm to its resting position in May 2022 and had to declare the end of the mission shortly after.
