MarsDial
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The MarsDial is a sundial that was devised for missions to Mars . It is used to calibrate the Pancam cameras of the Mars landers. MarsDials were placed on the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers , inscribed with the words "Two worlds, One sun" and the word "Mars" in 22 languages. [1] The MarsDial can function as a gnomon , the stick or other vertical part of a sundial. [2] [3] The length and direction of the shadow cast by the stick allows observers to calculate the time of day. [2] The sundial can also be used to tell which way is North, and to overcome the limitations of a magnetic north different from a true north. [2]
The sundial design team [4] included Bill Nye "The Science Guy," space artist Jon Lomberg , and astronomers Woodruff Sullivan , Steve Squyres , James Bell and Tyler Nordgren . CAD design and drawings were done by Jason Suchman. The MarsDial was intended to be part science outreach , part calibration target.
Curiosity (MSL), the rover which landed on Mars in August 2012, used a spare sundial remaining from the Mars Exploration Rovers. [5] It has a new text that reads "Mars 2012" and "To Mars To Explore". [5]
The ball is the nodus, the post is the gnomon. [3] The colors on the corners are for calibrating colors, and the inner circles are in greyscale. [3] There is a mirrored section on the middle circle to reflect the sky. [3]
The sundials are also " message artifacts " — something for future human explorers to find. [6]
Time-lapse
List
See also
- Phoenix (spacecraft)#Phoenix DVD ( Phoenix Mars lander has a DVD)
- Voyager Golden Record
References
- 1 2 3 About the Pancam and calibration target
- 1 2 3 "Mars Exploration Rover: Mars for Educators: Roverquest" . mars.nasa.gov . Retrieved 2018-02-08 .
- 1 2 3 4 Cornell University – Sundial
-
↑
"Martian Sundial Designed For 2001 Space Mission Is Unveiled By Bill Nye 'The Science Guy'
"
.
Science Daily
. 22 April 1999.
The sundial design team included Jon Lomberg , an artist and creative consultant to the Mauna Kea Center for Astronomy Education, Hawaii; Tyler Nordgren, an artist and astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. ; sundial expert Woodruff Sullivan , professor of astronomy at the University of Washington ; Louis Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society ; Cornell University astronomers Steven Squyres and Jim Bell ; and Bill Nye , the television writer and host of the public television children's science program, 'Bill Nye The Science Guy'.
- 1 2 3 Rebecca Boyle (2012). “How A Sundial Lets Curiosity See Mars in Living Color”. Popular Science
- ↑ Hawaii Tribune Herald “Big Island artist’s art to land on Mars, again”
External links
- Curiosity ' s Marsdial is on Mars (The Planetary Society)
- The Planetary Society's page covering the MarsDial
- Make your own MarsDial! also Planetary.org instructions Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
- MSL's sundial on Mars
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