Curiosity kills the Bad

[neufer]

The Planetary Society Blog
By Emily Lakdawalla Apr. 8, 2011
Having some fun with Curiosity's pretty face
plus, a conversation about Curiosity with a 4-year-old)

La Giocuriosity

---

<<The photo I took of Curiosity's "face" and posted on Monday seems to have tickled a lot of people. I understand it's the subject of a "Photoshop this Mars rover."

Also, since this is already a wholly unserious post, I have to share an amusing conversation I had with my 4-year-old daughter this morning. When she came downstairs for breakfast, a photo of Curiosity was on the screen of our kitchen computer.

"What's that vehicle?" she asked. (She knows the word "vehicle" because of a matching game we have where players have to match things by category -- animal or vehicle.)

"She's a Mars rover named Curiosity," I said. I pointed to the picture. "Look, she has six big wheels, and up here are her eyes. See how they're two different sizes, isn't that silly?"

"What other parts does she have?" my daughter asked.

"Well, she's got an arm, here, with lots of scientific instruments at the end. And up there above her eyes, that's a laser! She shoots rocks with that. Pew pew!"

"It's a girl rover who shoots bad guys with a laser!" my daughter summarizes. My husband cracks up.

"No, not bad guys," I said, backpedaling. I shouldn't have gone with the laser angle. "Rocks. She shoots rocks, and turns a little piece of them into plasma so she can study them." (She's familiar with the word "plasma" thanks to They Might Be Giants.)

My daughter mulls this over for a second or two, trying to sort it all out. "She shoots rocks," she says. "Bad rocks?"

Now both my husband and I are laughing, and I clarify to her that Curiosity isn't a fighting rover, she's a scientist rover, but I'm not sure I've convinced my daughter; I think she now thinks of Curiosity as a robot that is going to Mars to fight evil rocks!>>

[Beyond]