[X] My Assistant

[lyford]

I know it may seem like the planetary science equivalent of one's thumb blocking the lens, but there appears to be a trend of spacecraft taking pictures of themselves. I guess they can serve some engineering check out purpose, but gosh darn it, I just think they're neat. Rosetta, Beagle leaving MEX, and now Kaguya. Even Phoenix is snapping shots from inside it's shell.

Seeing the hardware in the picture makes me feel that I am a passenger looking out in a way that even panoramas can't. It could have something to do with establishing a human sense of scale, but seeing Haybusa's shadow gave me goosebumps. Maybe I am just so used to seeing things from a cinematic perspective that it feels more "real" that way.

How come this ability seems to be more popular now? Are cameras cheaper? Are mission programmers getting more creative?

I can't recall any early missions with these types of photos - what engineer in his right mind would design a camera to fly to Mars and let the spacecraft get in the way of the view?

Can anyone remember any old school hardware vanity shots? Other than landers, of course, which can't help but get in the picture sometimes? And no humans allowed.

[dvandorn]

This is still representative of the first and most fascinating (to me) self-portrait image I ever remember seeing -- even though it is only a very small portion of the spacecraft in the portaiture:



This is actually not the image I truly recall -- that one was taken in low-res 200-line mode, while this one here was taken in 600-line high-res mode.

-the other Doug

[4th rock from th...]

Here's a color version!

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[dvandorn]

Here's a color version!

Yep -- but I believe that color version is from Surveyor III. It's from one of the missions that carried the robotic scoop. You can tell because the scoop was used to dump some soil onto the footpad so the camera could study its cohesiveness, grain size/distribution, etc.

-the other Doug