Mars rover photographs penny


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Martian dust appears on the surface of a penny in a photo by the Mars Hand Lens Imager aboard NASA's Curiosity rover on October 2. The image of the 1909 coin is at the highest resolution possible for the high-powered camera -- 14 micrometers per pixel (a micrometer is about .000039 inches). The rover touched down on Mars in August 2012 with a mission to explore the Gale Crater, once thought to have hosted flowing water, and find out if that environment was ever habitable.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/14/tech/gallery/mars-curiosity-rover/index.html?hpt=hp_t5

 

 

post-37120-0-56773300-1381543776.jpg

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Shame American coins, now, feature the ridiculous statement "in god we trust" on them.

Should have stuck with "E pluribus unum".

 

E pluribus unum is still on them, but I wish they would take the religious stuff off. I'm still not clear on this photo, is the penny embedded into the Rover? 

 

Why did they choose a 1909 penny, wouldn't the year the rover was launched make a whole lot more sense?

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When Martians find the rover together with this coin, they'll think the name of the rover is actually Liberty and was sent over there in 1909 with a Wright Flyer. What a major history cockup. Oh, and that indeed god is all we can trust (to be a complete bumhole, but that's for another story). That much is true. But why there's Rob Downey Jr. on the coin?

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When Martians find the rover together with this coin, they'll think the name of the rover is actually Liberty and was sent over there in 1909 with a Wright Flyer. What a major history cockup. Oh, and that indeed god is all we can trust (to be a complete bumhole, but that's for another story). That much is true. But why there's Rob Downey Jr. on the coin?

 

Hope you're joking. Robert Downey Jy?

 

Thats clearly Daniel-Day Lewis! :p

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E pluribus unum is still on them, but I wish they would take the religious stuff off. I'm still not clear on this photo, is the penny embedded into the Rover?

Why did they choose a 1909 penny, wouldn't the year the rover was launched make a whole lot more sense?

The answers to the phrase and the date are the same;

1909 was the first year the Lincoln penny was produced. Crafted by Victor David Brenner it's considered one of the US's best coin designs.

Honoring Lincoln is, of course, a no-brainer. Sending up the first year of the coins issuance without grinding off the phrase just to please some petulant anti-religion folks was as much to honor Brenner's work as Lincoln.

The shale is that the.photo cuts off the coins rim where it meets Lincoln's shoulder. Between the two would be the letters 'VDB', Brenner's initials.

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The answers to the phrase and the date are the same;

1909 was the first year the Lincoln penny was produced. Crafted by Victor David Brenner it's considered one of the US's best coin designs.

Honoring Lincoln is, of course, a no-brainer. Sending up the first year of the coins issuance without grinding off the phrase just to please some petulant anti-religion folks was as much to honor Brenner's work as Lincoln.

The shale is that the.photo cuts off the coins rim where it meets Lincoln's shoulder. Between the two would be the letters 'VDB', Brenner's initials.

 

No one said anything about grinding it off, that would be stupid. I meant for future coins obviously. Also honoring Lincoln is fine but I don't see what that has to do with the Mars Rover or how anyone is supposed to get the purpose from just an old penny. If the rover were found far in the future the 1909 date would be quite confusing.

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the year 1909 would of course have no meaning to any aliens so...

 

also it's embedded on the rover and I believe the first picture it took after touchdown was of the penny. I think it's used to calibration to, though they should have better tools for that anyway. 

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It's only part of Curiosity's calibtation target, which is very extensive. The penny is circular so it would make various optical aberrations very apparent. It also has fine details, and the team thought it would be cooler than the simple metal disc some puckerbutts would have used.

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It also has fine details, and the team thought it would be cooler than the simple metal disc some puckerbutts would have used.

and a damn site cheaper to make

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