As far as extreme off-roading goes, it currently doesn’t get much further away from our roads than the planet Mars. The planet is currently only populated with robots, one of which is the super-advanced Curiosity rover.
It left Earth from Cape Canaveral in November of 2011 and it’s been on the barren surface of Mars since August 2012.
It’s tasked with carrying out geological experiments, general exploration as well as climate and atmosphere analysis.
Recently, the rover sent back a “selfie” photo of itself doing its thing. The shot was taken using the MAHLI system, short for Mars Hand Lens Imager (basically the generic onboard camera used to take closeups of rocks).
NASA says this is the first “selfie” sent back by Curiosity taken from such a low angle, even showing “the belly” of the bot. A small rock was noticed as well, wedged in one of its wheels that measure 20-inch/50cm in diameter, 16-inch/40cm in width.
via NASA
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