NASA’s MarCO CubeSats Snap Their First Photo Of Mars
Earlier this month, a tiny NASA satellite captured its first snapshot of Mars. And, while we’ve seen plenty of spectacular photos that unravel the secrets of the red planet — taken by Mars orbiters and rovers both from space and from the Martian ground — the news is extremely significant.
Unveiled yesterday by the space agency, this is the first-ever image of Mars taken by a CubeSat — an experimental class of mini-satellites designed to demonstrate the novel technology.
The new Mars photo was taken by one of the MarCO satellites — twin CubeSats sent to investigate the red planet alongside NASA’s InSight mission, as reported by the Inquisitr. While NASA has an entire host of CubeSats at its disposal, these are the first-ever mini-satellites to venture outside Earth’s orbit and head out to explore another planet.
