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 Replies: 35 / Views: 7,129 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
At a recent press conference, a reporter asked why the 1909 Lincoln Cent was chosen to be a part of the calibration target for the MAHLI camera on the Curiosity Rover. He was told this 1909 was chosen as a centennial for the launch date, and the coin belonged to someone who belonged on the MAHLI team (I forget which). Here is the latest full-size picture of the LWC on the Mars surface with the full caption here. |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
I wonder what condition it will be in, 100 years from now, after being sand blasted by Martian dust storms?
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2448 Posts |
I don't think there will be much left of it by the time a collector gets there.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1903 Posts |
What is up with the crappy yellow tape job to the left of the panel? I thought NASA was more high tech than that! Lol
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3486 Posts |
I have a few words about the NASA Grading Service: Their holders are too large, and their turn around time stinks. And I can't figure out how to remove it from the packaging that they used. Oh, and the UPS guy just dropped it out of the sky! Never, ever going to use them again! "Houston, YOU have a problem!"  Edited by matthewvincent
09/10/2012 07:39 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
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What is up with the crappy yellow tape job to the left of the panel? I thought NASA was more high tech than that! Lol They put that there so the martians could see how advanced of a species we really are. I believe they saw it and talked amongst themselves and came to the conclusion that we werent ready yet to let us know they are there |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2295 Posts |
Pretty interesting article and thanks for sharing. You'd think they would just put a metal ruler on there, to judge the size of things.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
10045 Posts |
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What is up with the crappy yellow tape job to the left of the panel? Good eye--it looks like packing tape, although I'm sure it's a much higher spec. That would be a good call-in question for a press conference. I can only guess something was taped down to isolate it from separation during the SkyCrane operation? All that engineering worked flawlessly--so they did something right. As for a scale, one of those is called a "metric bar graphic" which I assume works for measurements. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2224 Posts |
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What is up with the crappy yellow tape job to the left of the panel? You'd think they'd use duct tape. Thought that fixed everything!  Want to make a good impression when Marvin and his buddies stumble on it.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
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What is up with the crappy yellow tape job to the left of the panel? Maybe they forgot to completely unwrap that part when it arrived? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2200 Posts |
"He was told this 1909 was chosen as a centennial for the launch date..."
Whoever said that doesn't know beans, since that means that the spacecraft would have to have been launched in 1809.
The craft was launched on November 26, 2011. They chose the 1909-VDB because it marks the centennial of Lincoln's birth.
Edited by jpsned
09/10/2012 5:59 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1151 Posts |
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The craft was launched on November 26, 2011. They chose the 1909-VDB because it marks the centennial of Lincoln's birth.
The original date was set for 2009, so the centennial of the Lincoln Cent. |
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Valued Member
United States
210 Posts |
A closer look. NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS "The coin is a 1909 penny provided by MAHLI principal investigator Ken Edgett. "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 explained. "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?" Flecks of reddish Martian sand can already be seen on and around the penny. One of the images printed above the penny is a cartoon character called "Joe the Martian.""  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1903 Posts |
MAHLI....they just feel compelled to give an acronym for everything don't they!lol
So here is mine....
LIPSTIC.... Lincoln Image Panel Static Target Imaging Calibrator.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
TreeMonkey--thanks for posting the close-up pic!  As a comparison, here's the LWC taken on Earth to the picture you posted. The lighting is much different, so I'm unsure those little nicks weren't on it originally?   Edited by DVCollector
09/10/2012 9:14 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Imagine sometime in the future an explorer from some far off planet landing on Mars. we are all gone now due to all the atomic wars. They look at the machine we sent there, realize we spent billions of our currency to get it there and what is on it? A lousy Penny. Not even a few dollars, just a Penny. Of course in that far future those explorers would think this coin is the highest valued thing we use. They would base our monitary system on this one coin and think all our money is less than that thing. And they would assume Copper, used for that Penny, would be the most expensive metal we ever used for anything. Then next would be their ideas of what we all looked like based on what they think is our best representative of our people and it's on that coin. Our entire existance is now based on that one Penny. Next they try landing on what is left of planet Earth. They land right next to what is left of an auto collection and the only thing left intake after millions of years is an Edsel. So all Humans look like Lincoln and drive Edsel cars. Not a bad thing just not really something to brag about when they get home. |
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Replies: 35 / Views: 7,129 |
Posted 09/10/2012 05:54 am
