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Bill Nye's Marsdial
Some Clown writes "MSNBC via the Seattle Post Intelligencer is reporting that Bill Nye the Science Guy, as part of the Earthdial Project has got what's being billed as a 'Marsdial' put onto the Mars Rover. Interestingly, it is now the official backup for orienting the Mars Rover in case of primary camera failure. Maybe an old fashioned sundial is just what the doctor ordered after the many math and other blunders of late. This whole Earthdial Project seems pretty interesting as well. They're trying to set up a worldwide network of sundials tracked via webcam. The goal is to track the sun's movements as viewed from many points on earth, as well as from Mars. Definitely interesting... at least if the 'Marsdial' doesn't disintegrate upon landing." There's a little more technical description of the Marsdial in our earlier story.
Also, it appears as though Bill Nye essentially only modified the design of the color post that they were sending up that was originally meant to better calibrate the color tinting on the cameras. From the article:
So, in other words, Nye did do it in software, didn't add weight, and the parent is a complete troll?
First, I think it's more or less given that the sundial is fixed onto a part of the robot that doesn't move, most likely the main body.
I'm not positive, but I think that they'll be able to find the craft's position based off of two things: the current position of the Sun - if they know where the Sun is, they should be able to predict how the shadows would fall on the sundial - and the way that shadows actually are falling on the sundial.
To the best of my knowledge, those two pieces of information should be enough to identify the robot's alignment
If the sudial's positioning gets screwed up while landing or on Mars, though, then a whole new host of problems spring up...
Goo goo g'joob.
Bill Nye was on TechTV a couple weeks ago talking about this. It was pretty interesting. They have a video of it on the TechTV site. http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/howto/story/0,2 4330,3587881,00.html
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panoramic camera
There are a total of nine cameras on the rover. I suspect that the pair of Navcams (which don't have solar filters) would be used for task should the pair of Pancams malfunction.
Bill Nye's formal background is more as a comic actor than a scientist. "Bill Nye: The Science Guy" was a character he first used on "Almost Live!" which was a Seattle local show that at the peak of its run was syndicated nationally. Pat Cashman, with his deep announcer voice, was also an Almost Live! cast member and is seen frequently on Nye's show as well. Nye was always interested in science, and as a result he made sure that his Bill Nye: The Science Guy show was accurate and at lot of influence in the direction of the show. Yet, he really doesn't have any science research cred, he's a broadcaster who knows how to present grade-school level topics in a way that most people can understand. His sundial idea is just a little too simplistic for NASA to have come up with on their own, which is why they initially rejected it. However, there is valid science because a sundial will always give you a fairly accurate way to tell time no matter which planet in the solar system you're on, and also a valid way to solve for orientation. Two things that previous missions may have stumbled over... a checksum is a very nice thing to have sometimes...
Bill Nye has a Mechanical Engineering degree and worked at Boeing as an engineer before he got involved in acting. That is not enough formal scientific background for you?
Q.