NASA reveals secrets of Curiosity’s selfies
NASA has published a long and detailed explanation of just how its Curiosity rover managed to take a self-portrait. The agency has posted a video, which we've popped at the bottom of the story, and lengthy text explanations of the way it assembled the shot below. NASA says “Curiosity held the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager ( …
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The lab based self portrait is good for working out the scale of the thing. Putting it into proper context with objects we see and use day-to-day lends a good sense of scale.
Obviously we always need some sex interest in these pictures... it is Friday after all.
OK folks. Time to come back to reality and see what we are fighting for.
http://www.godaddyguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/khazzy.jpg
Data centers.
Why is it that tin foil hats can protect one from everything except belief in insane conspiracy theories?
Re: Note to self:
Buy more shares in tin foil manufacturers.
Curiosity didn't take the pictures of itself. It did what any tourist would do... It handed the camera to a local and asked them to take the pictures. ("Does this laser make my butt look big?")
The quality of the snaps just goes to show that Marvin is has handy with a camera as he was with an Illudium Pu-36 Space Modulator.
That reminds me....
Now that NASA, the UN and the Tri-Lateral Commission have paid me, I need to delete those pictures I took of Curiousity sitting out in the middle of Death Valley.......
Thanks, Reg!
Waste of time? Hardly
Even inasmuch as they're also spectacular eye candy, the high-res mosaic "selfies" provide important information to engineers about the state and health of the rover, as well as information about the nature of the terrain the rover is traversing.
On at least two occasions, both MER rovers had become stuck in deep dirt, and the engineers and rover drivers used extensively detailed "selfies" to determine the extent of the predicament, develop extraction solutions, and determine how well these solutions were working. Also, polar-projected panoramic "selfies" of Spirit and Opportunity were used to determine the extent of dust coverage on the solar panels before and after dust storms.
But, yeah... the by-product is really, really cool fotos. That can't be bad.
Hold off on the tinfoil for now
I think we're safe from the nuclear-powered laser tanks until they learn how to make "duck face" poses.
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