A self portrait of the Mars rover “Curiosity” made by stitching together dozens of pictures taken from the camera on Curiosity’s arm. Image credit: NASA
For the 20 year anniversary of the Mars Pathfinder mission, NASA has released a neat video about all of the missions the agency has sent to the Red Planet. It shows the eight landers and orbiters that have provided continuous observation of Mars since July 4, 1997. Combining animated renditions and footage from NASA control rooms with imagery from the spacecraft themselves, the video captures the joy and exploratory spirit of human space travel (look at that celebration for the Mars Exploration Rovers!).
The next Mars mission is Insight, a lander coming in 2018 intended primarily to study the geological history of the Red Planet.
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