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The Perseverance rover on Mars has just taken one of the best selfies ever.
On Wednesday, NASA published the photos, which show the rover seemingly snapping a picture of itself alongside the Ingenuity drone on the Martian surface.
The photos were taken the day before. Perseverance was built with a rather long 7-foot robotic arm. The same arm has a wide angle camera, enabling the rover to snap images of itself.
“Two bots, one selfie. Greetings from Jezero Crater, where I’ve taken my first selfie of the mission,” the official Twitter account for Perseverance posted. However, NASA notes the selfies were actually stitched together from 62 individual high-quality images, taken from various angles.
NASA snapped the photos as it prepares to fly the Ingenuity drone on Mars for the first time. The test flight is currently scheduled to occur at the end of the day this Sunday on April 11, assuming the local wind conditions are favorable.
The goal is to first fly Ingenuity up 10 feet in the air for up to 30 seconds. Afterward, the rover will hopefully download any images and video taken from the drone’s camera and beam them back to NASA.
“From the data downlinked that first evening after the flight, the Ingenuity team expects to be able to determine if its first attempt to fly at Mars was a success,” NASA said. The agency plans on holding a press conference for the event 3:30 am EST on Monday April 12th.
It’s not the first time Perseverance took a selfie. Last month, the rover snapped separate photos of itself as the robot prepared to navigate a hill.
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