Apparently They Forgot to Pack the Pano Head

[Chris Kern]

Interesting video showing how the technical staff for NASA's latest Mars rover shot a "selfie" with its onboard camera.  No pano head involved, albeit getting the images for the stitch required more than a little programming of the robotic arm to which the camera is attached.  (The image was created to determine the effect of the Martian weather on the exposed surfaces of the rover.)

[kers]

Interesting video showing how the technical staff for NASA's latest Mars rover shot a "selfie" with its onboard camera.  No pano head involved, albeit getting the images for the stitch required more than a little programming of the robotic arm to which the camera is attached.  (The image was created to determine the effect of the Martian weather on the exposed surfaces of the rover.)

As you can see on the video the lens remains at the same position- the arm is a pano head.

[Chris Kern]

As you can see on the video the lens remains at the same position- the arm is a pano head.

Exactly.  Absent dedicated hardware (i.e., a pano head), the NASA staff programmed a series of discrete sequential robotic movements, probably at least hundreds and perhaps thousands, then transmitted them up to Mars rover so the arm would move the optical system around the nodal point in order to create a series of images that could be seamlessly stitched.