4 ms·

It’s really easy to get a wrong intuitive sense of the size of these things! I don’t understand why space agencies don’t always have human figures for reference

It’s really easy to get a wrong intuitive sense of the size of these things! I don’t understand why space agencies don’t always have human figures for reference in their visualizations. Or even a simple scale bar! We just get these silly “the size of a tennis court” type textual comparisons. Few people realize how big the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are, as another example.

aksss 5y ago
I believe the banana is the Internet standard for visual scale.
- jl6 5y ago
  Also radioactivity, which also suits a Mars rover comparison.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
egeozcan 5y ago
> Few people realize how big the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are To be fair, Perseverance looks as big as I imagined it would be, about the size of an SUV but wider (because even in 2020s, they still don't have streets in mars, what a bummer): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/science/mars-2020-rover-name.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/science/mars-2020-rover-n... Or did my googling fail me? :) edit: direct image link around paywall: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/02/18/science/18mars2020rover03/18mars2020rover03-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/02/18/science/18mars202...
- ravi-delia 5y ago
  My mental image until I looked it up was around the size of a dog. No, I don't know why
  - jpindar 5y ago
    The older ones were smaller. https://earthlymission.com/size-comparison-generations-mars-rovers-curiosity-sojourner-perseverance-opportunity-nasa/ https://earthlymission.com/size-comparison-generations-mars-...
    - Sharlin 5y ago
      But even Spirit and Oppy were… well, I guess they're roughly the size of a very large dog. At 185 kg, much heavier than even the largest dogs though.
  - Angostura 5y ago
    Because it's called rover? :)
- aitchnyu 5y ago
  Stupid me thought its go kart sized like the one Howard Wolowitz in The Big Bang Theory brought to a baseball stadium.
- etskinner 5y ago
  https://archive.is/tpcRK https://archive.is/tpcRK for the article
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
divbzero 5y ago
> Few people realize how big the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are … and how much larger they are than Sojourner from the Pathfinder mission. Perseverance was sent with a metal plate depicting profiles of all five Mars rovers to date: Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance. [1]. [1]: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/mars-rovers/en/mars-rovers_metal-plate.en.jpg https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/mars-rovers/en/mars-rovers_metal...

aksss 5y ago

I believe the banana is the Internet standard for visual scale.

jl6 5y ago
Also radioactivity, which also suits a Mars rover comparison.

deleted 5y ago

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egeozcan 5y ago

> Few people realize how big the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are To be fair, Perseverance looks as big as I imagined it would be, about the size of an SUV but wider (because even in 2020s, they still don't have streets in mars, what a bummer): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/science/mars-2020-rover-name.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/science/mars-2020-rover-n... Or did my googling fail me? :) edit: direct image link around paywall: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/02/18/science/18mars2020rover03/18mars2020rover03-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/02/18/science/18mars202...

ravi-delia 5y ago
My mental image until I looked it up was around the size of a dog. No, I don't know why
- jpindar 5y ago
  The older ones were smaller. https://earthlymission.com/size-comparison-generations-mars-rovers-curiosity-sojourner-perseverance-opportunity-nasa/ https://earthlymission.com/size-comparison-generations-mars-...
  - Sharlin 5y ago
    But even Spirit and Oppy were… well, I guess they're roughly the size of a very large dog. At 185 kg, much heavier than even the largest dogs though.
- Angostura 5y ago
  Because it's called rover? :)
aitchnyu 5y ago
Stupid me thought its go kart sized like the one Howard Wolowitz in The Big Bang Theory brought to a baseball stadium.
etskinner 5y ago
https://archive.is/tpcRK https://archive.is/tpcRK for the article
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

divbzero 5y ago

> Few people realize how big the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are … and how much larger they are than Sojourner from the Pathfinder mission. Perseverance was sent with a metal plate depicting profiles of all five Mars rovers to date: Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance. [1]. [1]: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/mars-rovers/en/mars-rovers_metal-plate.en.jpg https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/mars-rovers/en/mars-rovers_metal...