Curiosity Rover Pictures

nasa-mars-curiosity-rover.jpg
 
2.5 billion dollars and they stuck the camera from a 1995 Nokia phone on the thing?
 
Awesome news. Woha, that's a big dune buggy, those Martians will need bigger posters :D
[video=youtube;ZYzM1M1X790]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYzM1M1X790[/video]
 
Sinbad said:
2.5 billion dollars and they stuck the camera from a 1995 Nokia phone on the thing?
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As Zoidberg has pointed out these are just initial images. As the rover powers up (which i think takes a couple days) we will begin to see bigger and better images.
 
Unhappy438 said:
As Zoidberg has pointed out these are just initial images. As the rover powers up (which i think takes a couple days) we will begin to see bigger and better images.
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They better produce some stunning images. It's a little difficult for politicains to grant more money for images that can be created in MS Paint. :D
 
Picard said:
They better produce some stunning images. It's a little difficult for politicains to grant more money for images that can be created in MS Paint. :D
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Images will be the least important bit of science the MSL does. Analyzing ground samples are way more important, although it should give some nice images once all the instrumentation is up.
 
Crusader said:
Images will be the least important bit of science the MSL does. Analyzing ground samples are way more important, although it should give some nice images once all the instrumentation is up.
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^ This. But the rover is going to be sending back 2MP panoramic shots once everything is up and running.
 
What I find interesting is that the nuclear reactor on the rover can give it peak power of 125W for 14 years after which it drops to 100W. Barring any mishaps Curiosity could be in use for a VERY, VERY long time.

Something else that's pretty cool is what might be a dust cloud caused by the descent stage crashing into Mars. If you look at the images where Curiosity looks at its own shadow you can see what looks like a puff of dust on the horizon - http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4213

It's in both rear hazcam images and not there in later images. Speculation, but cool if true.
 
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Crusader said:
What I find interesting is that the nuclear reactor on the rover can give it peak power of 125W for 14 years after which it drops to 100W. Barring any mishaps Curiosity could be in use for a VERY, VERY long time.
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I'm intrigued, all previous nuclear power sources I've known of require water to convert into steam to turn turbines in a generator.
 
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