Starship Asterisk*

neufer wrote:Our most cherished space photos in the future will be pictures of "ourselves" in (soon to be fully documented) alien landscapes.

Raven wrote:
Tourists and vanity: it afflicts even our machines.

Travel all the way to an alien world, stop in the middle of an alien landscape, and take a photo of yourself.

(Well, technically, take 55 partial photos of yourself, to be stitched into one -- each time photographing where your arm isn't. But notice the shadow cast on the upper left of the wheel directly below us, center bottom of the picture, and on the ground left of the wheel. What's casting that shadow? Not the semi-conical motor to the left; its shadow is recognizable just left of that shadow directly below. By elimination, the mystery shadow is "us", the camera, directly above.)

Mactavish wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:

geckzilla wrote:Rob, it still baffles me how not even a tiny part of the robotic arm is visible. You would think there would be at least one part or a few shadows present in enough of the images that there wouldn't be enough data to fill in the gaps.

There are even camera apps that can do this automatically now, taking several images in quick succession and removing everything that moves (so you get vacation pictures without people in them).

My wife wants one of these to remove a few wrinkles.

Chris Peterson wrote:

geckzilla wrote:Rob, it still baffles me how not even a tiny part of the robotic arm is visible. You would think there would be at least one part or a few shadows present in enough of the images that there wouldn't be enough data to fill in the gaps.

There are even camera apps that can do this automatically now, taking several images in quick succession and removing everything that moves (so you get vacation pictures without people in them).

rstevenson wrote: [...]

If it turns out that the tax paying public likes these sort of images, a future mission could carry an independant camera on a tripod, which it could set up and leave for a while. The rover could move around in its field of view doing the science work, then go back, pick up the camera and move to another location. Nature photographers do this all the time.

Rob

orin stepanek wrote:Could that be shadow of the camera on the right front wheel and axle?

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/namerover/Winn ... ncedEssay/
“Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder.” excerpt from Mars Science Laboratory naming contest, winning essay by Clara Ma, age 12

neufer wrote:

http://walyou.com/escher-remake-robot-with-reflecting-sphere/ wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF][size=150]Robot with Reflecting Sphere: Escher Remake[/size] April 9th, 2011 . By Eran Abramson in Arts and Crafts .[/color][/b]

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http://www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=M_C_Escher_2006

geckzilla wrote:Rob, it still baffles me how not even a tiny part of the robotic arm is visible. You would think there would be at least one part or a few shadows present in enough of the images that there wouldn't be enough data to fill in the gaps.

http://walyou.com/escher-remake-robot-with-reflecting-sphere/ wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF][size=150]Robot with Reflecting Sphere: Escher Remake[/size] April 9th, 2011 . By Eran Abramson in Arts and Crafts .[/color][/b]

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rstevenson wrote:
If I looked closely enough, I'm sure I could find other image artifacts here and there where, for example, shadows wouldn't look quite right or edges are at slightly the wrong angle. But since the whole picture is made up of 55 sub-images, I'd expect that anyway.

Rob

APOD Robot wrote:the exciting possibility is that it could be from Mars itself ,the remains of fossils of extinct species is a subject matter of research.

geckzilla wrote:Rob, it still baffles me how not even a tiny part of the robotic arm is visible. You would think there would be at least one part or a few shadows present in enough of the images that there wouldn't be enough data to fill in the gaps.

royalpalms6 wrote:How is Curiosty takeing photos of it's self?

royalpalms6 wrote:How is Curiosty takeing photos of it's self?

while digitally removing an extended arm.