The story behind Curiosity's self-portraits on Mars • Hacker News Board

Re: The story behind Curiosity's self-portraits on Mars

#11

Post by wmeredith » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 3:31 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #10

wmeredith wrote: post #7

I find the mental image of this happening on the Martian surface quite amusing. Imagine an alien ship landing in your backyard, slowly extending an ominous robotic appendage and then... taking a 50 selfies.

I find it amusing that we would see an advanced alien race as being borderline idiotic and socially blind. They would instantly grasp what was going on. They have PR in their world too, not to mention the engineers would know that a 'selfie' would be good to diagnose any external damage.

The patent absurdity of the scenario is what makes it funny. Of course it's totally unrealistic. Lighten up.

Re: The story behind Curiosity's self-portraits on Mars

#12

Post by IneffablePigeon » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 4:28 PM UTC

bluepostitnote wrote: post #6

netrus wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with what you say, you might under-appreciate the value of cool pictures. Yeah, they are doing cool science stuff up there, but a good part of the value of these missions is to get people excited about space, kids interested in technology, and to give humans some perspective of their place in the universe. A high-resolution selfie of this kind-of-cute robot is as important as the results of their drilli…

This is one of the aspects that gets me excited for airborne drones which can operate in the Martian atmosphere. Not only for the potential offered by longer range, but also the possibility for some great photos of any ground based vehicles whose mission zone overlaps. Great photos can inspire and help fund great science.

How much would Mars's thin atmosphere interfere with that plan? Would you be able to lift any significant amount of weight?

Re: The story behind Curiosity's self-portraits on Mars

#13

Post by bluepostitnote » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 8:36 PM UTC

IneffablePigeon wrote: post #12

bluepostitnote wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the aspects that gets me excited for airborne drones which can operate in the Martian atmosphere. Not only for the potential offered by longer range, but also the possibility for some great photos of any ground based vehicles whose mission zone overlaps. Great photos can inspire and help fund great science.

How much would Mars's thin atmosphere interfere with that plan? Would you be able to lift any significant amount of weight?

Impacts it a lot, but there are teams working on it: http://www.space.com/30155-nasa-drones-on-mars-video.html