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It's Cold on Mars
- amelius 6y agoThe banner of that webpage already shows the helicopter flying. This CGI is confusing. When it comes to Mars rovers, I never know which images are real or fake. They could at least have a mark in the corner to indicate CGI.
- purplecats 6y agoThey're all CGI.
- jessaustin 6y agoThat's certainly true when we're talking about images of solitary rovers. Now that they've sent multiple robots to the same location, it's at least possible they could get real pictures of them.
- tempodox 6y agoI always wondered how those Mars rover selfies manage to not show the arm holding the camera.
- _Microft 6y agoThey can take photos that look as if they were taking by a separate camera but they just move the arm at which the camera is attached around. The arm will be at different positions in different images and they then stitch the photos together excluding the image parts with the arm. Edit: I found an animation for you that actually shows the process! It's on NASA JPL's Instagram account, though: https://www.instagram.com/p/6k4pUMFbys/ https://www.instagram.com/p/6k4pUMFbys/
- chrononaut 6y agoRelated, Scott Maxwell (one of the former Mars Rover Drivers) found an early prototype selfie the other day from the Curiosity test bed rover: https://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/1378207128981098497 https://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/13782071289810984...
- totetsu 6y agoIt just realized how big it is, seeing next to people
- amelius 6y agoBut how could it show the rover in its entirety, including the arm itself?
- shagie 6y agoThe banner also shows Perseverance in the background of the shot. The full video is at https://mars.nasa.gov/layout/helicopter/images/Helicopter_take_off.m4v https://mars.nasa.gov/layout/helicopter/images/Helicopter_ta... - the part I'm refer to is 5 seconds in.
- 1023bytes 6y ago45 Fahrenheit = 7.2 Celsius -130 Fahrenheit = -90 Celsius
- tempodox 6y agoWhy is NASA using those antiquated imperial units in the first place? I thought they'd want to be a force for progress?
- Symbiote 6y agoIt's embarrassing that they don't provide a metric conversion, and also omit the ° sign. (PS America uses "US customary" or "English" units. Imperial units means the ones after standardization across the British Empire in 1824, which by then did not include the USA.)
- grishka 6y agoIt's embarrassing that they aren't pushing to switch the US to the metric system.
- mattowen_uk 6y agoI believe it's been tried before, and failed.
- User23 6y agoThe US did switch to the metric system over 45 years ago[1]. Many of us just prefer the customary units for many everyday uses for various reasons. For example, I find degrees Fahrenheit a more sensible choice for representing outdoor temperatures since the degree increments are slightly smaller and the typical outdoor temperature nearly always falls in the positive range. For Celsius, the triple point of water zero is a great reference for lab work, it doesn’t have any particular relevance to deciding what to wear. A base 12 distance unit also has some pleasant properties. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act
- anotheraccount9 6y agoNASA using degree Fahrenheit in this article... there is no hope.
- luma 6y agoIt's essentially a press release written for popular consumption in America. If it was a scientific paper, ok sure use K, but that isn't what you're reading. Using units unfamiliar to the taxpayers supporting the mission seems counterproductive.
- brudgers 6y agoIn fact it's cold as hell.
- elygre 6y agoThat ain’t no place to raise your kids.
- dgudkov 6y agoRelated discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26692573 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26692573
- brtkdotse 6y agoWhile I enjoyed the article, I was very pleasantly surprised by how rapidly the page loaded - without pop ups, ads or newsletter nagging.