Rover sends a 9/11 tribute from Mars

[Playinghardball]

Source: MSNBC


NASA's Opportunity rover produced this mosaic view of its own tribute to the victims and the survivors of the 9/11 terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2011. The component bearing the image of the flag was fashioned out of aluminum salvaged from the World Trade Center towers and serves as the cable guard of a tool on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. Two separate cameras on Opportunity recorded exposures that were combined into this view.

Alan Boyle writes
Last week we told the story of how a 9/11 memorial got to Mars aboard NASA's Opportunity rover — and aboard its twin, the Spirit rover, which was put to rest this year after succumbing to the Martian winter. Today NASA released this photographic mosaic highlighting Opportunity's piece of 9/11, sent back to Earth on the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks.

The color image at the center came from Opportunity's panoramic camera. It's easy to spot the U.S. flag on the aluminum cable shield that was fashioned out of metal salvaged from the ruins of New York's World Trade Center and attached to the rover's robotic arm. The black-and-white view surrounding the color picture was produced by the rover's navigation camera, which can capture a wider view.

Scientists originally planned for Opportunity to execute a three-month mission at Mars — but more than seven and a half years after it landed, the six-wheeled robotic explorer is still hard at work, studying the 14-mile-wide Endeavour Crater. Neither dust storms nor sand traps have managed to defeat the rover, which is why it's so fitting that a little red-white-and-blue piece of the machine commemorates America's resilience in the post-9/11 world.

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/12/7734115-rover-sends-a-911-tribute-from-mars?GT1=43001

[dtexdem]

1. Oh,God, can't get away from the 9/11 hype even by going to Mars.

Are any ships leaving for Venus soon? ;-)

[R. P. McMurphy]

2. I think this is an excellent tribute to the lost souls of 9/11.

It's too bad that a thoughtful gesture like this has to be met with such snark and cynicism.