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Curiosity Gearing Up for Drive to Next Study Location

Posted by samzenpus on from the warming-up-the-engines dept.

Curiosity has spent most of the past 5 weeks running instrument and system checks, but on Friday that is all scheduled to change. The plan is to "drive, drive, drive" until a suitable rock for the rover's first robotic "hands-on" analysis is found, says mission manager Jennifer Trosper. The rover will head to a location about 1,300 feet away labeled "Glenelg," where three different types of rock intersect.

13 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Ah, Ye Olden Times. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The rover will head to a location about 1,300 feet away...

    That be 12/36ths of a cubit, multiplied by four and 1/4 rods, then minus sixteen and 1/8th hogsheads.

    1. Re:Ah, Ye Olden Times. by Brett+Buck · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When you put a rover on Mars, you can pick whatever units you want.

    2. Re:Ah, Ye Olden Times. by isorox · · Score: 5, Funny

      When you put a rover on Mars, you can pick whatever units you want.

      That worked out so well for the Mars Climate Orbiter

    3. Re:Ah, Ye Olden Times. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      When you write a slashdot summary about an organization that put a rover on Mars, you can pick whatever units you want.

      FTFY. The original press release from NASA contained the both the metric units and the imperial ones (Didn't specify the subset but I am going to assume British feet.)
      The article linked in the summary only presents the distance in metric units. The summary is either not a summary of the article or the one who wrote the summary took the liberty to convert the liberty to convert the units with some rounding.

    4. Re:Ah, Ye Olden Times. by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

      When are American's going to grow up?

      When you stop abusing the apostrophe.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    5. Re:Ah, Ye Olden Times. by NotSanguine · · Score: 3, Funny

      What is that in a civilized unit of measure?

      When are American's going to grow up?

      It's Americans, not American's and that's a very good question.

      Also, 1m=3.275ft, so 1300 feet = 396.95m or 1.97 furlongs.

      --
      No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
    6. Re:Ah, Ye Olden Times. by felipekk · · Score: 5, Funny

      I know it's a different one, but still oblig:

      http://xkcd.com/695/

    7. Re:Ah, Ye Olden Times. by Teancum · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you are going to do conversions, make sure you include proper rounding to significant digits and avoid false precision.

      In other words: 1300 feet = 400 m = 2 furlongs.

      Well, those are approximate conversions, but it is an approximate distance as well. This is something I think most "science reporting" does a horrible job of dealing with as well.

      As for cubits, those were about 21 inches or about 52 centimeters, which would put the distance at about 800 cubits or about 80 rods. A hoghead is a unit of volume, which isn't applicable.

    8. Re:Ah, Ye Olden Times. by tehcyder · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What is that in a civilized unit of measure?

      When are American's going to grow up?

      A foot is an arbitrary unit of measurement like a metre. What's the difference? Why is one more civilized or grown up than the other?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. Lazy scientists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Taking a car when they could have just walked 400 meters. Don't they think of the environment?

  3. what hands? by FranTaylor · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't see hands on the ends of those robot arms. I don't know what they are talking about.

    The robot devil had to sign a deal with Fry to get hands.

  4. Curiosity landing in HD and sound. by SternisheFan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I submitted this for a story, may be redundant. Here's a link to the landing in enhanced 1080 hd video with sound effects added in. http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/curiosity-landing-video-gets-sound-visuals-enhanced-to-1080p-20120914/

  5. Glenelg? by aglider · · Score: 3, Funny

    Curiosity will certainly end up in a palindrome loop!

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.