NASA/JPL describe the photo as:
- ... view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager....
- In the distance, the image shows the north wall and rim of Gale Crater. The image is murky because the MAHLI’s removable dust cover is apparently coated with dust blown onto the camera during the rover’s terminal descent.
NASA says that this cover will be removed in the coming weeks for clearer shots from the "hand" device.
Here is more about that part of the rover:
- The MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm.
The picture was taken of course with the dust cover on but NASA also reports that:
- the robotic arm was in its stowed position. The main purpose of Curiosity's MAHLI camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil at the rover's Gale Crater field site. The camera is capable of focusing on any target at distances of about 0.8 inch (2.1 centimeters) to infinity. This means it can, as shown here, also obtain pictures of the Martian landscape.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems
6 comments:
I watched all this myself, while trying to turn four different comps into 1).
If I remember correctly, it was going to be a few days before they started testing the robot arm. And I think those tests were to take approximately 2 weeks to get them all done. Let me know if I'm wrong on this.
After my comp disasters of the last days, I don't envy those guys a bit. Well I do until something goes wrong that is.
You know what I would like. I would like to have about 35 pounds of mars soil here on earth to do some growing experimenting on myself. Of course I still want the so called moon dust (so called referring to the particles that make it up) to try a growing experiment as well.
And by growing I mean plants. See if anything actually happens with this stuff used in different concentrations, and how it limits the growing process.
Not for any real purpose, I just want to do it and see for myself.
Now I am off to deal with an old comp, in the old ways of motorcycle mechanics. I'm going to get my BFH and fix it right. That means Big F'n Hammer.
Four into one huh? Boy do I know that drill. A part from this one, a bit from that one....oh I can use that drive from that one and this ones case and power-supply are cool...The computer I am on now has the least of that....hard drives and memory are the most this one has received so far. Only has a core duo though...would really like to drop in a quad....hummm
Anyway, Mars soil. I have heard that the surface overburden is really incapable of growing anything because of heavy ionization which would be like dumping hydrogen peroxide on your plants. I know it would be a valuable experiment for sure.
That's what I'd read as well somewhere.
And yeah, I'm always messing with plants. Mom husband Paul brought home a couple for me to plant. I had a small area, and made a big mistake. I used my soil mixture, and now I have tomato plants over tomato plants.
Plus I had over 300 african violets and spider plant when I was a teenager.
I can soil plant, or hydro plant, which is my plan for next year. Hydro grow as much of the garden as I can, then transplant to soil in spring. Gives me the benefits of both styles.
Hydro for quantity.
Soil for quality.
That's how I've always held it anyhow. My soil growing always has a better flavor than the hydro. At least it does without costing me a real arm and a leg that is.
I'm always experimenting with new soil mixtures. So that is why I had thought about this long ago. To gather dirt and dust from around the solar system, and start experimenting. I'm sure some day some one will get the chance.
Okay, I'll settle for a brain mapping and a robot body. Anything that will keep me around for all the interesting stuff to come.
Damn! Green thumb or what?! Never had a "real" garden. Little plots for greens and that ilk. Now it is mostly just playing around with house plants. Bonsi and such. Just don't have any space here to do anything.
Robot body mapped with your brain.... you know if this does come to pass, and it is widely available you are going to wind up with a lot of "people" that I will bet dollars to doughnuts will be the next ultra cheap workforce. Either its wildly expensive and only the ultra rich can avail themselves of it or the alternative Neo-slaves. Matrix hell, we will be awake for that little slice of horror.
Yeah, I thought about all that as well, and have even used it on worlds in my game here. But I'd still go for it. At least I wouldn't have asthma any longer. So even a bit of enslavement might not be that bad. At least I would never fight for a breath again, and hopefully soon this problem will be solved anyway. Asthma I mean, not the robot body, but I can still hope.
But imagine the benefits to space travel for those of us that are basically loners to begin with. We'd suddenly be in demand for long flights as we deal easier with no one around.
I spent 6 months in the desert and only saw the shaman one time that me brought me a few supplies and even then we didn't speak at all. (Training I was going through at the time)
But I would instantly volunteer for a long term flight. Hell, if not for the girlfriend and the animals, I'd volunteer now for a solo flight to mars.
It would be good for the beammeup site at least.
Oh I didn't say I would NOT do the transfer. Matter of fact, I would try to have my name as close to the top as possible. If it meant a century of servitude....done deal. As with your particular problem, if I could get out from under the burden of a 50% unresponsive body .... Long flights .... interstellar flights... etc yep, they would be tailor made for me.
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