Wednesday, August 24, 2005

A guy with the Mentorn film crew thought I looked a little like Steven Soderbergh. I just ran a Google image search to see for myself. Perhaps he was onto something.




"Hey Steven! Give me back my glasses!"


By the way, the documentary (as yet untitled) will air on the Discovery Channel early next year. Besides the requisite interview (filmed in a somberly lit motion simulation theater), Mentorn took lots of footage of me gazing at various screens and manipulating the "eyes" of a full-scale mock-up Mars Exploration Rover. (Dramatic stuff.)

I also got to meet Larry Crumpler, who has the rare distinction of having "driven" the Spirit rover from the comfort of Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. I didn't have a chance to ask him about the "rabbit" (presumably airbag material from the rover's violent descent), but we talked about the "anomalous cleaning events" (NASA's term) that have kept the rovers' solar panels unexpectedly dust-free as well as the enticingly algal-looking "Magic Carpet" feature unveiled when the airbags were retracted.

Crumpler was quite excited about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (now on its way), which features unprecedented four-centimeter surface resolution. I compared the MRO's resolution to a spy satellite's and Crumpler confessed he was a little surprised NASA had been able to acquire it. I got the impression NASA's space technology, seemingly cutting edge, is at least a generation or two removed from its military equivalent.

Photos forthcoming.

3 comments:

Gerald T said...

The disconnect occurs because the ruined machinery that spirit is photographing is just too degraded for a non archeologist to understand what he is seeing. The scientists have become so specialized and have had there consciousness narrowed to such a limited field of view, that we now have the wacky situation of the rover driving by alien artifacts willy nilly, with out ever stopping to investigate more closely.
An alien observing the exploration actions of the Rover would have to think;

A humans care only for geology, we are mineral enthusiasts, and care nothing for other species, races or civilizations.

B. That we are insane.

Hey Mac, if you can corner one of the JPLers, ask him about the artifacts on my Mars blog posted the last two days, how can there a geologic explanation for the structure observed?
How?

http://marsrelaystation.blogspot.com/

Paul Kimball said...

Mac:

Sounds like you had fun. Just remember to withhold final judgment until you see the film, especially if they filmed you in front of anything that was green!

:-)

Paul

Mac said...

WMB--

Especially the way my hair is now.

Paul--

No green-screen, thank goodness!