--- title: "NASA’s InSight Lander Just Flexed Its Arm and Took a Selfie" description: "NASA's Mars Insight Lander just flexed its arm to find the right spots to place its scientific instruments." date: "2018-12-07" modified: "2018-12-07" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasas-insight-lander-just-flexed-its-arm-to-take-some-more-pictures" categories: - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "insight mars lander" - "JPL" - "mars insight" - "the digest" --- # NASA’s InSight Lander Just Flexed Its Arm and Took a Selfie ![NASA's Mars Insight Lander just flexed its arm to find the right spots to place its scientific instruments.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Weird Flex If you visit Mars and don't take a selfie, did the interplanetary trip even count? NASA's InSight lander just flexed its 6 foot (2 meter) telescopic arm, and used it to take some more pictures of its dusty Martian surroundings. The plan is to use the arm to very gently pick up scientific instruments from the lander's deck and place them next to it on the Martian soil. A special camera attached to InSight's elbow is looking for a suitable spot for each of its scientific instruments. If it succeeds, it'll be the first time any rover has placed an object on the surface of another planet using a robotic arm, NASA pointed out in an [update](). ![]() *Image Credit: NASA* ## Slow and Steady But that process is going to take a while: the team at the Jet Propulsion Lab will deploy InSight's instruments over a period of two to three months. So far, the engineers have just been running the instruments through tests to find out if they're working properly. ![]() *Image Credit: NASA* ## Extensive Testing "We did extensive testing on Earth. But we know that everything is a little different for the lander on Mars, so faults are not unusual," [says]() project lead Tom Hoffman of JPL, as quoted in NASA's update. "They can delay operations, but we're not in a rush. We want to be sure that each operation that we perform on Mars is safe, so we set our safety monitors to be fairly sensitive initially." Seeing pictures taken on the Martian surface will never get old. By next week, we'll get an even more detailed view, so stay tuned. **READ MORE: [NASA's Mars InSight Flexes Its Arm]() \[NASA\]** ***More on InSight: [NASA’s InSight Mars Lander Fires up Solar Cells and Sends Selfie]()*** ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()