back to article Curiosity parks for a day, looks back in wonder

Wall•E wannabe Curiosity has driven another 21 metres, then given itself a day off to admire the view. The little rover that could trundled to the east last Thursday (US time). That effort exhausted the craft, which spent Friday resting. It did find time to snap the panorama below depicting its tracks on the Martian surface. …

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  1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

    "The little rover that could"

    I thought the correct El Reg form was "nuclear-powered, laser-armed, interplanetary death tank".

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Is that

      A cigarette end that I can see?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Question?

      They talk about trundling east or west, but does Mars have a magnetic field like we do here. Would a compass work? How do know east from west on Mars?

      1. Christos Georgiou
        Holmes

        Re: Question?

        Earth and Mars are (more or less) on the same plane, so it's easy to use the same “north” and “south” regardless of magnetic fields. “East” and “west” follow.

      2. Annihilator
        Boffin

        Re: Question?

        "How do know east from west on Mars?"

        It doesn't have a magnetic field any more, but it's believed it does have. However it's relatively easy to assume north is the same orientation for Earth (bear in mind, "North" isn't fixed for us either, the magnetic pole moves, and the entire field can reverse). As for telling east from west on Mars, the Sun still rises and sets... :wink:

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Annihilator

          I know, right. It's strange to see someone ask that question. "How do I know which way is up!" ;)

          1. Tom 11

            Re: Annihilator

            Not really mate, when I was on admin sec duties for the national grid when CSC took over, we had a young lady work on the front line, who quite often aired her misconceptions of the world around her, but one of my favorites was her trying to fathom the ambiguity presented when someone mentioned traveling south, which involved a drive out of the valley up a hill, and she told us all that it was not possible, seen as North is uphill, not south...

        2. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

          @Annihilator

          "(bear in mind, "North" isn't fixed for us either, the magnetic pole moves, and the entire field can reverse)"

          Actually, North is very much fixed for us and it's not dependent on where the magnetic North is (they are different even now). True geographic North is at the North pole.

          For Mars its true North will be at the pole located in the same hemisphere above the Solar invariable plane as the Earth's North pole...

          1. IDoNotThinkSo

            Re: @Annihilator

            Yes, in the sense that North has nothing to do with the magnetic field.

            No, in the sense that the axis of the Earth's rotation does in fact wobble around a small amount...

            http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2000/2000GL011450.shtml

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: @Annihilator

            Vlad,

            I suspect you know this, but don't you think "very much fixed for us" might be a bit of an overstatement, when we need an entire international agency to constantly keep track of where North is, amongst other things?

            I am, of course, talking about the International Earth Rotation Service [IERS], which by the way must be the coolest name of any agency ever created.

        3. Ryleh
          Headmaster

          Re: Question?

          But of course there is an Universal Universe UP and DOWN!!!! Look at all the SciFi movies, especially Star Trek - you can easily see that all the space ships move on the same plane and have the same UP and DOWN as everyone else!!!

          Obviously SciFi movies are a FACTUAL!!!!

          1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

            Re: Question?

            Up and Down, Starboard - towards the system's star, Port - away from it. One of the most practical Sci-Fi ideas I have read about recently.

            But that's good for ships, for planets you'd still want NESW cardinals...

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Joke

              Re: Question?

              Better than NSFW Cardinals...

              1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

                @Theodore

                Ah, I was just wondering when those will Pope out...

            2. SteveK

              Re: Question?

              "Starboard - towards the system's star, Port - away from it. One of the most practical Sci-Fi ideas I have read about recently."

              Until you end up in a star system with two (or more) stars..

          2. Franklin
            Joke

            Little-known fact

            "But of course there is an Universal Universe UP and DOWN!!!! Look at all the SciFi movies, especially Star Trek - you can easily see that all the space ships move on the same plane and have the same UP and DOWN as everyone else!!!"

            Not many people know this, but in the Star Trek universe, all starships (whatever the race that creates them) are equipped with sensors allowing them to detect and orient themselves to the edges of your TV set.

      3. Crisp

        Re: Question?

        I figured that it was the same way they figured it out in Stargate Universe.

        "That's where the sun rises. We'll call that East."

      4. Pete 2 Silver badge

        Science fiction has a word for it

        > They talk about trundling east or west

        NASA could always adopt the SF terms: spinward and antispinward that can be applied where there is no magnetic pole to drive a compass, nor any significantly bright star to rise or set in a particular direction. The terms have been popular for quite some time, though maybe aren't as "taxpayer friendly" as the more familiar east and west.

        1. ratfox
          Headmaster

          Antispinward??

          The correct term is widdershins, as everybody should know!

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Coat

          Re: Science fiction has a word for it

          A better idea would be to use the terms "turnwise" and "widdershins".

          Mine's the one with octarine light shining out of the pockets.

      5. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Question?

        OK, rimwards, hubwards, clockwise, and widdershins then.

    3. Will Godfrey Silver badge
      Angel

      Re: "The little rover that could"

      Some people just have no soul!

      1. david 64
        Go

        Re: "The little rover that could"

        Gingers have souls.....

    4. atomic jam

      Re: "The little rover that could"

      I though it was

      Nuclear powered, laser gun toting planet botherer.

  2. Silverburn
    Happy

    Bored?

    Zapping morse code into the dust with the lazer. Practical use of mission resources? You'd never catch me doing it.

    No wait, yes you would. I'd be zapping rude things into everything just for giggles, dammit.

    1. Stoneshop
      Go

      Re: Bored?

      "He hoped that from some vantage point in the Universe it might be seen to spell a very, very rude word."

    2. Crisp

      Re: Bored?

      Billions of dollars spent of getting a robot with a laser to Mars.

      What do they do with it? Draw penises on Martian rocks!

  3. Steven Roper
    Trollface

    Glenelg?

    Anyone who lives in South Australia will be laughing their heads off at that one!

    (For those who don't, Glenelg is Adelaide's rather sorry attempt to imitate the Riviera...)

  4. thegrouch

    I thought the morse code came from the track pattern in the wheels?

  5. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    I knew it!

    That thing in the lower right of the last picture is definitely a cannon.

  6. NogginTheNog
    Happy

    HHGttG

    "Hey Marvin! Wotcha doing on Mars?"

    "Writing Morse code in the dust with my laser. It's very depressing."

    "Hey cool metal man, that's one hoopy trip you got there!"

    "I know. Here's me brain the size of a planet, and they just tell me to drive along shooting rocks and then taking pictures of them."

    1. Annihilator
      Mushroom

      Re: HHGttG

      "Oooooooh this makes me very angry..."

  7. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Joke

    He could have been writing Vogon poetry in Morse code, but then maybe there is a treaty against that.

    1. Chemist

      "He could have been writing Vogon poetry... "

      No wonder he was depressed !

  8. Arachnoid
    Go

    So now we have declared war on the martians can we expect retaliation in the form of powered meteorite strikes on EarthERK!

    1. Simon Smith 1

      As any fule kno...

      ...they would use the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

      1. Pedigree-Pete
        Coat

        Re: As any fule kno...

        I thought we spelt that Illuidium over on the right side of the pond..

        Mines the one with the Aluminium hat in the pocket.

  9. harmjschoonhoven
    Boffin

    Re: Question

    NSEW is derived from the spin axis, not from the magnetic North.

    See: IAU Commission IV, WG IV/9, Mars geodesy/cartography working group

    recommendations on mars cartographic constants and coordinate systems.

    http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/XXXIV/part4/pdfpapers/521.pdf

    1. Tom 7

      Re: Question

      thanks for that - but what has jschoonhoven done to you?

    2. Alan Firminger

      Re: Question

      Helpful, thanks.

      But I could find no help with the North Pole of Uranus, which spins in the opposite direction to the other planets. So which end is North?

      Surely it has to depend on the spin because in deep space there are only distant spots of light as reference. As was almost written above, every stationary object rises in the East, then use a compass card.

      Lots of loose objects are found without spin, how are they mapped ?

      And the north pole of a magnet is more correctly named 'North seeking'. I don't know how we would settle this linguistically if civilised humans live through a reversal of the earth's magnetism. Of course we may visit planets with reversed magnetism so the needle points the wrong way, no problem as NASA will produce special compasses at $125K each.

      1. Chris 171
        Joke

        Re: Question

        Yeah the Uranus problem has become a bit of a shitty stick.

  10. Will Godfrey Silver badge

    So, the thing lands, mooches around a little then vandalises the place with graffiti. Sounds just like a teenager to me!

  11. Arachnoid

    I think Id agree I can see Uranus being a problem depending on the celestial wind direction.As for Mars well North is of course in the direction of the first bite.

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