2012?

What? Hasn't that thing got a geologists hammer?

I see an image that is so high in quality that it is like looking at the rock with the naked eye, it is awesome. To see it in natural 6k type illumination, and then UV showing what looks like fluorescent material in the rock demonstrates the care and attention that has been put into the programme, and I have to believe as an engineer but not a geologist that this imagery is pretty good. Further I have no doubt that other measurements will be made by Curiosity, and even samples analysed if it is considered appropriate. The whole thing is magic to me!! Well done NASA.

What? Hasn't that thing got a geologists hammer?


Nope. I bet they would love to have one, and a pry bar as well. I'm guessing they didn't give it a hammer due to the shock that would send up the arm, but that's just a guess. The drill is better anyway.

lol on the 2012 error. I'll bet that got some laughs around the office at NASA when they saw it.

I see an image that is so high in quality that it is like looking at the rock with the naked eye,


That image is a lot better than your eyes are capable of. Curiosity has awesome cameras. They tried to change them out for even better ones at the last minute, but they couldn't get the testing done in time. They were even going to use one based on James Cameron's 3D movie camera. That would have been absolutely awesome.

There's an interesting thing happening now in regard to cameras on science missions.

We can now make cheap, light-weight, reliable cameras that use very little electricity and have image quality that far exceedes the scientific needs in cases like this. So when designing a rover like Curiosity, the question has changed from 'what is the best camera' to 'how good do we need it to be'. The reason you don't want a camera with resolution that exceedes your needs is bandwidth. It takes a long time to download a huge file from Mars.

Maybe we need to install fiber optic cable from here to Mars. lol.

I wonder what the Mars sky looks like with zero light pollution. Does it have clear nights that offer views of the Milky Way like on Earth?