A little disappointing actually! I thought the pattern was a clever way to capture the status of the parachute in the event of failure, so if all they got was a garbled low-res image before the lander crashed to the surface they could deduce which section failed. Alas, it was just an easter-egg..
The Parachute Message
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Re: The Parachute Message
#12I was one of the people who went viral on twitter and was interviewed by the NYT for posting the solution. [1, 2] It was really neat to see people all over the world come together to solve this puzzles in [1] https://twitter.com/adithya_balaji/status/136402008259946087...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/science/nasa-mars-parachu...
[3] https://twitter.com/steltzner/status/1364076615932645379?s=2...
Re: The Parachute Message
#13A little disappointing actually! I thought the pattern was a clever way to capture the status of the parachute in the event of failure, so if all they got was a garbled low-res image before the lander crashed to the surface they could deduce which section failed. Alas, it was just an easter-egg..
> ... just an easter-egg ..
Not true, according to OP:
> Allen Chen revealed that there was a code hidden in the parachute, as well as the markings being useful for camera alignment.
Re: The Parachute Message
#14JPL has a history of hiding messages like this. One of the rovers leaves tracks that spell "JPL" in morse code. I think it's all kind of fun.
Genuinely one of my favorite trivia questions about curiosity: https://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery/curiosity-rover-m...
Re: The Parachute Message
#15I wonder how much more expensive was it to create the parachute with the code.
Almost everything in these missions is a one-off order built to unique specifications.
The color of the parachute? It was probably not even a line item. As a sibling comment pointed out, they'd still would've colored it in a way that helped with tracking and orientation.
Re: The Parachute Message
#16A little disappointing actually! I thought the pattern was a clever way to capture the status of the parachute in the event of failure, so if all they got was a garbled low-res image before the lander crashed to the surface they could deduce which section failed. Alas, it was just an easter-egg..
> ... just an easter-egg .. Not true, according to OP: > Allen Chen revealed that there was a code hidden in the parachute, as well as the markings being useful for camera alignment.
Asymmetrical markings also allowed for measurement of parachute rotation during the operation.
Re: The Parachute Message
#17I wonder how much more expensive was it to create the parachute with the code.
Most places that do custom printing for Mars-ready parachutes give you a nice 10% off coupon if you sign up for e-mails, or they might have snagged a Black Friday deal.
Re: The Parachute Message
#18I wonder how much more expensive was it to create the parachute with the code.
Never understood downvotes on questions or on economics. The cost of something affects how well it will scale. This is like downvoting a question about performance specs. Cost is a performance spec that determines scaling.
Re: The Parachute Message
#19I wonder how much more expensive was it to create the parachute with the code.
Never understood downvotes on questions or on economics. The cost of something affects how well it will scale. This is like downvoting a question about performance specs. Cost is a performance spec that determines scaling.
Subtle play of the classic HN "but does it scale?" joke. As if someone is concerned about how well martian parachute assembly processes scale :D
Re: The Parachute Message
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Never understood downvotes on questions or on economics. The cost of something affects how well it will scale. This is like downvoting a question about performance specs. Cost is a performance spec that determines scaling.
Subtle play of the classic HN "but does it scale?" joke. As if someone is concerned about how well martian parachute assembly processes scale :D
Elon cares.