SKY-WATCHER'S DIARY: Selfies from space

Everybody loves selfies. Now on every mobile there is a selfie camera and they are improving day by day to show ourselves beautiful. Thousands of years ago humans was not having any way to look at themselves. Only still water was the way to have a look. Most advance civilizations like Egypt, China and India uses plain polished surface of metals as a mirrors. It’s the Eleventh century where humans learned to make mirrors from glass. But they were not for everyone to afford. Only royals or wealthy one could buy them. Famous painters like Leonardo da Vinci and others made their self-portrait by looking into mirrors. After fifteenth century these mirrors were affordable to everyone. But, there quality was not clear. In eighteenth century Justus von Liebig a chemist made silver coated mirrors which were really in good quality. These mirrors were affordable to common people too. Now everybody can have it to see self-image.

From Mirrors then in eighteenth century age of camera started. From then people started taking their pictures. A person’s picture is called as portraits. Taking pictures from camera required another person. But, now in the age of digital camera and mobile that need also got away. Now you can take your own picture without need of any person. We now called our self-portrait, a selfie. The word “Selfie” become regular word of every language and made its place in different language dictionaries. Everybody took their selfies on different backgrounds with their friends, on their tour to different place and post it on social media.

Affection of selfies are not limited to humans only. Machines are also now taking their selfies. Yes, these machines are space crafts which are visiting another worlds. Curiosity Mars rover regularly share its selfie on different landscape of the Martian surface. Reason behind taking selfie of these machines is to check out what are their physical condition. On Martian dusty surface scientist regularly check out the condition of this rover. Now, different missions also started sending their selfies. It’s difficult to claim which one is the first selfie of these space crafts but here some of the marvelous space selfies.

Curiosity was landed on Mars in 2012. In a way we can say that Curiosity is a first star of Selfie, because this Mars rover has send many perfect selfies. Its robotic arm equipped with Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera. Curiosity can maneuver its robotic arm and camera to take its beautiful selfie from various angle. NASA has posted these selfies time to time on its twitter and Instagram accounts.

Curiosity's Selfie

Curiosity's Selfies on different backgrounds as it traveling on Mars planet surface

Viking Lander, landed on Mars in 1976 and took this photograph of its deck. This spacecraft does not cover itself entirely in photo. But, it can be consider as first self portrait by a spacecraft.

Viking 2 Lander's deck

Mars Rover Spirit in September 2005 completed its 618 sols on Mars and took its deck picture.

Mars rover Spirit's Solar panel

Japanese IKAROS an interplanetary mission on solar sail test took picture of solar sail purposefully to see solar sails performance which went very well in June 2010.

IKAROS camera took picture of its deployed sail

To celebrate Opportunity’s 5000 Martian days in February 2018, NASA scientists did an experiment to take its first ever selfie. There was small robotic arm like Curiosity on Opportunity, but its camera was a Microscopic Imager which was design to take photographs of soil sample from 2.7 inch distance. Scientists used this camera to take images of rover. It was mosaic of many images of rover taken from microscopic imager. Due to camera’s short focus this selfie appear little out of focus.

On 5000 sols first selfie of Opportunity Mars Rover taken by Microscopic Imager camera

In May 2008 another Mars polar lander Phoenix send its selfie to earth by using its mast mounted camera. It was just to check condition of its instruments.

Phoenix Lander

Rosetta a mission to comet snaps its selfie in February 2007 while bypassing Mars planet and European Space Agency twitted ‘Rosetta was here’ on its twitter account. Second time it snaps selfie with the targeted comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.