Curiosity is carrying a peculiar calibration target, a 1909 Lincoln penny

Oct 10, 2013 18:21 GMT  ·  By

Even if NASA can't tell you about all the wonderful things it's doing, rest assured that the agency is still very busy, the parts of it that are still working anyway.

The Curiosity rover, for example, is continuing her mission on Mars and is currently headed towards the massive Mount Sharp, the rover's main destination.

Curiosity is the most interesting and the most capable rover we've ever sent to Mars. It's packed with equipment, cameras, and sensors. But it's also got a few superfluous design elements, like the 1909 penny that's built into the casing.

The penny does serve a purpose, it's designed to help calibrate Curiosity's cameras, but NASA could have used anything else for this.

The penny, like Curiosity herself, has been enduring the Martian weather. A recent high-resolution shot captured by Curiosity's MHALI (Mars Hand Lens Imager) camera shows plenty of dust having settled on the penny, though not enough to obscure it.