back to article Now Curiosity rover beams back 3D snaps of Mars

The Mars-trekking Curiosity rover has beamed back the first 3D image of the dusty terrain it's trundling across. 3D pic of Mars terrain from Curiosity With 3D specs... The intrepid rover is currently familiarising itself with the Gale Crater after its successful landing three days ago and has sent back a 2D and 3D shot of …

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  1. AndrueC Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    You'd think that in an office of software and hardware engineers either someone would have some 3D specs or else we could make some. It's not rocket science.

    I'll have to go on a hunt :)

    1. Lee Dowling Silver badge

      Buy Quality Street.

      Place one Strawberry-whatever wrapper on one eye. One of those cyan Almondy-thing wrappers on the other eye. Swap eyes if you feel like the world is escaping for you.

      Done.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I do love a MacGyver fix.

        1. Lee Dowling Silver badge

          No, McGyver would have shaped the tin into a knife and bomb-proof hat, melted the chocolates into a burning paste which he fired out of a gun fashioned from the remains of the tin, used the wrappers to build a stained-glass silhouette of himself to put into a window to distract someone below, and used the little piece of paper that tells you which chocolate is which to form an origami raft to send a message downriver to the sheriff station asking for backup.

          Amateur.

  2. ukgnome
    Thumb Up

    Awesome

    just awesome

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    curious

    Does the rover have a speaker onboard so that we can relay someone's voice to Mars?

    1. Lee Dowling Silver badge

      Re: curious

      G-g-get your ass to Mars... G-g-get your ass to Mars...

    2. Greg J Preece

      Re: curious

      Does the rover have a speaker onboard so that we can relay someone's voice to Mars?

      And which atmosphere would that work in? Surface pressure is less than 1% what it is on Earth.

  4. Helix

    No anaglyph please

    These images are for red & green glasses. Can't Nasa release these pictures in a format that can be displayed on a 3D TV in real colors?

    1. Jan 0 Silver badge
      Holmes

      Re: No anaglyph please

      No glasses required: If they'd just release them as a side by side pair of monochrome images, then a little bit of eye crossing would do nicely.

      1. Jim Wormold

        Re: No anaglyph please

        Or you could save the some work and just separate the channels yourself. They must be quite busy at the moment!

        1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

          Re: No anaglyph please

          There will still be ghosting - you cannot completely restore an image from anaglyph.

          They should just use a site like Phereo and upload MPO or side by side JPG to it. The site's viewer can then show it in many formats...

    2. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      @Helix Re: No anaglyph please

      "These images are for red & green glasses."

      They look like red-cyan to me.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No anaglyph please

      What the hell is wrong with you? NASA has just sent a vehicle the size of a car 350 million miles on a journey taking 8 and a half months, eventually landing on an alien planet via rocket powered crane with such success that they had to check and recheck the instrument readings because it was far more successful than their own simulations ever predicted it would be, and what do you say? "I don't like the image format"

      Just fuck off.

      1. TheRealRoland
        Happy

        Re: No anaglyph please

        "Well, if they can send humans to the moon, why can't they select a better format?"

        You could also ask yourself - 'why didn't they use an iPhone as the camera? it's ok quality, too, and much cheaper'

        It's so easy to complain -- but i'm suspecting he was trolling...

        1. Jared Hunt
          Facepalm

          Re: No anaglyph please

          The raw images from the left and right cameras are on the NASA website. Download those and do the image processing yourself if it bothers you so much.

    4. Mike Brown

      Re: No anaglyph please

      agree completly. if they have the tech to send this the rover to mars, and then images back, then they could have the decency to use a decent format. side by side please boffins.

    5. Richard Scratcher
      Childcatcher

      Re: No anaglyph please

      It's for the kids man, you know, for the little kiiiiiids!

  5. Annihilator
    Headmaster

    Trundling?

    " The Mars-trekking Curiosity rover has beamed back the first 3D image of the dusty terrain it's trundling across"

    Is it trundling yet?

    1. richardcox13

      Re: Trundling?

      No it isn't. I seem to recall NASA saying it will be several weeks.

  6. Avatar of They
    Thumb Up

    shadows.

    Anyone else look hard at the shadow of the Rover on the ground and hope to spot something else?

    No, oh just me then.

  7. Winkypop Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    It's like I'm there

    Gasp!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    I'm still not sold on 3D, but this helps

    I'm still not sold on 3D, but this helps.

    Everytime I see that picture I can't help but feel that my (as many others will I suspect) council are not doing the greatest of jobs repearing pot-holes and cracks in comparision and maybe that in itself is prove of life on Mars. Though that speed hump looks down right silly, even by UK standards.

  9. xyz Silver badge
    Unhappy

    every bloody time....

    I can't find the 3D glasses that I bought after the last time I needed them and didn't have any. Rats!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cool...

    Cool pictures, but that's an awfull lot of Money just to find out if Elvis really is there.

  11. Annihilator
    Go

    Mast deployed

    @MarsCuriosity tweeted about 30 mins ago, it's deployed its mast now!

  12. RSW
    Thumb Up

    Curiosity needs it's own section

    I think it's time Curiosity got it's own Reg section not just Space

    1. Richard Scratcher
      Coat

      Re: Curiosity needs its own section

      And were would they get enough material to fill such a section? Just out of curiosity.

      1. Mr Young
        Happy

        Re: Curiosity needs its own section

        I'd guess he doesn't have to iron a shirt in the morning so set his alarm clock 10 minutes later?

  13. Andrew James

    How long does data take to get to and from mars? I assume this will vary wildly based on differences in orbit etc

    1. joeW

      The figure being quoted at the moment is 14 minutes, but I'd imagine you're right that there would be quite a bit of variety there. From back-of-a-beermat calculations using rough values, I'm estimating anything from three to twenty minutes would be possible.

      1. Andrew James

        As a follow on from this, assuming line of sight and technical possibility, how long would light take to travel the same distance?

        1. A J Stiles
          FAIL

          Light

          The same amount of time, obviously.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I don't know how reliable this site is, but it looks pretty accurate:

        http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/qsl-mars-communication3.htm

        Cheers

  14. patters

    I'm no physicist but I think radio waves travel at the speed of light in a vacuum.

    1. Annihilator

      Light (visible) and radio waves are all electromagnetic radiation, and all travel at the same speed (max 3x10^8m/s)

  15. Stevie

    Bah!

    Random dot stereograph or didn't happen.

  16. Bradley Hardleigh-Hadderchance
    FAIL

    @Annihilator - Trundling yet?

    It's just having a quiet smoke. Feeling pretty pleased with itself. Having a bit of a nap.

    And WAHEY!

    I reckon it's gonna be a right little goer!

    I'm politically against things like this because there are people starving in the world and the money could be so much better spent elsewhere. Then again, I am a right boring bastard with no friends. So maybe watching it trundling around might be quite good entertainment after all.

    Never let it be said I did not embrace hypocrisy with both mandibles. Shit I think I got my posts mixed up....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: @Annihilator - Trundling yet?

      I'm politically for things like this because they are peaceful and expand human horizons, inspire children to learn and take up science as a career.

      I'm politically against military spending because it's not right to build things that are capable of killing people and destroying homes and infrastructure. Now I am no idiot and know that a military will always be needed but just by shaving a few zero's off the end of the budgets all over the world will free up so much cash that it could all but end world hunger, poverty and substandard medical care.

      1. Oninoshiko
        Headmaster

        Re: it's not right to build things that are capable of killing people...

        I agree! It's high time we stopped makeing cars, airliners, trains, ships, medicines...

        1. mark 63 Silver badge
          Holmes

          Re: it's not right to build things that are capable of killing people...

          Oninoshiko, I think you missed the cowards point.

          Its one thing to build a nailgun for the building of shelter,

          its another to buils a 50 cal sniper rifle that can only be used for killing people a mile away , impressive though it is ,

          much less an ICBM that can kill a million people on a different continent.

          1. Oninoshiko

            Re: it's not right to build things that are capable of killing people...

            That's not what (s)he said, it's not even close. (s)he said that we shouldn't build things capible of killing people. each of these things kill people every day. Say what you mean.

            And while not a grammer issue, I did use an icon indicating that I was being pedantic.

  17. mark 63 Silver badge
    Coat

    Hazard-Avoidance Cameras

    "Hazard-Avoidance Cameras"

    Do these operate in the same way as peril sensitiver sunglasses?

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