After nearly 14 years on another planet, a robot has sent a postcard back to Earth. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took two panoramas of the Martian landscape, which earthlings then merged and colourized to create an otherworldly postcard, the agency said in a Wednesday press release. Curiosity took the panoramas from the “Chocolatal” ridge using its black and white cameras, which help it navigate on Mars. The first photo was taken in the morning on Aug. 30, Curiosity’s 5,000th day on Mars, while the second was on the evening of Sept. 2. The pictures were sent back to Earth and combined to create what NASA called an “artistic interpretation of the scene.” The blue portions of the panorama are from the Aug. 30 photo, and the yellow from the Sept. 2 picture. The robot was designed and built at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Parts of Curiosity are in the photo, including its nuclear power source and UHF antenna, which sends data to nearby orbiting spacecraft. The rover’s tracks are also in the postcard. The robot is near Mount Sharp, a five-kilometre-tall mountain within Mars’ Gale Crater. The rim of the crater is visible in the postcard’s horizon. The little robot had been driving up the mountain since 2014, according to NASA. Curiosity’s 14-year-long trek can be tracked on a NASA interactive map as it journeys through the Gale Crater and up the mountain. No humans have visited or walked on Mars, but the robot has enjoyed some of humanity’s rituals while it works to explore Earth’s closest neighbour. Life on the red planet Curiosity’s mission is to figure out if Mars ever had the capacity to support life. The robot landed on Mars in 2012 with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, which the agency called “the most sophisticated chemistry lab ever sent to another planet.” However, the SAM has a second, more whimsical function: playing the “Happy Birthday” song. Curiosity celebrated its first birthday on Mars on Aug. 5, 2013, with a serenade from its companion SAM.
