Mars lander takes a selfie

JPL-Caltech/NASA

After painstakingly swiveling the camera mounted on its robotic arm for a week, NASA’s InSight spacecraft, which landed last month on Mars, has completed its first photographic survey—of the sand-filled crater surrounding it and of itself, NASA announced today. The work, which resulted in the above “selfie” created from a mosaic of 11 images, will allow InSight’s team to create a 3D view of the area where it will place two scientific instruments: a seismometer and a heat probe that will explore the internal structures and workings of the Red Planet. Placement of the seismometer could come as soon as next week.