Ken Edgett is our fellow coin collector on the Mars Curiosity Rover team -- he might even be a member of CoinCommunity? He was on the panel for yesterday's (Tuesday Aug 7th) JPL Press Conference -- the 3rd one since Sunday night's Mars landing.
Quote:Curiosity's 1¢ piece is not just any old penny.
Edgett picked out and purchased the penny with his own funds. A 1909 "VDB" cent, the coin is from the first year Lincoln pennies were minted, the centennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth. The initials ("VDB") of the coin's designer --
Victor David Brenner -- are etched onto the coin's reverse.
Accompanying the penny on the MAHLI calibration target is a tiny cartoon of a character named "Joe the Martian." Both the coin and the character serve double duty: both are calibration targets and both are intended to enengage the public.
"Everyone in the United States can recognize the penny and immediately know how big it is, and can compare that with the rover hardware and Mars materials in the same image," Edgett said. "The public can watch for changes in the penny over the long term on Mars."
"Will it change color? Will it corrode? Will it get pitted by windblown sand?" Edgett said.
On the NASA JPL site (link above in previous post) the daily Press Conferences are streamed live everyday at 10:00 am, but I don't see them being archive at this time. So, if you miss them I've found a neat site that does.
As a heads-up Tuesday's (24540690) video doesn't start until 9:52 on the recording.
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Posted 08/05/2012 1:40 pm
