March 29, 2011 02:04 pm EDT

NASA forced to abandon plans for 3D camera in next Mars rover, James Cameron not losing faith yet

Among the many great feats of his career, film director James Cameron counts the rather unorthodox achievement of being able to convince NASA to use a stereoscopic camera on its next Mars rover project. Unfortunately for him, us, and the hard working folks over at Malin Space Science Systems, technical snags have been encountered in the integration of the jumbo mastcam (pictured above) with the rover's hardware and the resulting delays have caused NASA to nix the idea altogether. You might think that 3D visuals of Red Planet gravel will be no great loss, but the MSSS cams also had zoom lenses attached, whereas the research project will now be returning to tried and true fixed focal length imaging. Ah well, such is the bumpy road to interterrestrial enlightenment. NASA's rover, titled Curiosity, is set to begin its voyage in November of this year, while Cameron and co remain upbeat about the future, saying they're "certain that this technology will play an important role in future missions."

NASA forced to abandon plans for 3D camera in next Mars rover, James Cameron not losing faith yet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PermalinkSpace.com | Malin Space Science Systems ||Comments

Original Link: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/29/nasa-forced-to-abandon-plans-for-3d-camera-in-next-mars-rover-j/

View Full Article

Engadget

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics. Engadget was launched in March of 2004 in partnership with the Weblogs, Inc. Network (WI

More About this Source Visit Engadget