CURIOSITY UPDATE: THE TRACKS OF YOUR TYRES
by Hazed
Having trundled along for a day, Curiosity stopped for a rest and had a bit of a look around. One of the pictures it snapped showed its own tyre tracks: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/03/curiosity_cruises/.
These tracks are not just a lasting sign of the rover’s passing. They are also meaningful. The tyres have been designed so that they imprint the morse code for the letters J, P and L onto the surface of Mars.
Cool!
And as a bonus, here’s the Curiosity’s tracks as seen from space.
Meanwhile, I found out recently that the crew at NASA who are managing the Curiosity rover are living on Martian time: http://io9.com/5940026/why-nasas-rover-team-lives-on-mars-time.