mars rover

Take a virtual tour of Mars on your iPhone or iPad

If you've been following the Curiosity rover's progress even a little, you've probably seen the cool 360-degree Mars panorama that hit the Web a couple days ago.

As CNET's Amanda Kooser pointed out, it's "about as close as you'll get to being there."

Now you can get even closer, virtually speaking. It turns out that the panorama works with gyroscopes, meaning that if you view it on your iPhone or iPad, you'll get a much more interactive experience.

Stop listening to me describe it and go do it:

Open up the … Read more

iPhone has a better cam than Curiosity

Friday's top headlines won't judge you by your megapixels:

The Curiosity Mars rover cost $2.5 billion, so why are the cameras just 2 megapixels? The answer comes down to time: Time the rover was planned, the time it takes NASA to test, and the time it takes to transmit larger file sizes.

As Apple and Samsung duke it out in court over patents and copycat claims, Google isn't sitting back quietly. CNET has learned that Google is quietly helping out it's Android partner Samsung with legal advice.

Not all NASA news this week has been … Read more

Apple calls Samsung a copycat in court

Apple is using Samsung's own words against it in their high-stakes patent-infringement trial.

Apple pointed to an internal Samsung document highlighting the weaknesses of the Galaxy S1 compared with the iPhone as further evidence that Samsung has copied its work. The document, a "relative evaluation report" on the Galaxy S1 and iPhone published in March 2010 and unearthed by Apple, highlights where Samsung's flagship phone fell short of the iPhone.

Apple will draw on this document as proof that Samsung actively compared its products against the iPhone, and made strides to better mimic the blockbuster device. … Read more

Curiosity's Gale Crater panoramic vistas (pictures)

With the masthead fully extended and the Curiosity rover's systems coming to life on the surface of Mars, NASA is beginning to return stunning views of the Red Planet, and today the agency released two stunning 360-degree panoramas from inside the Gale Crater.

Click the images to see the full-size panoramas from the surface of Mars. (And when you're done viewing a full-size version, scroll to the bottom right corner of the image to close it.)

 

 

You can see the full-resolution version of the above panorama here.

 

 

You can see the full-resolution version of … Read more

Viewers opted for the Web over TV to watch Curiosity's landing

More Curiosity fans took to the Web to watch the rover's highly anticipated landing on Mars than those tuning into cable TV.

According to Mashable, more than 3.2 million people viewed the nail-biting descent nicknamed "seven minutes of terror" via Ustream's live streaming platform on Sunday night.

"More people tuned in to watch the NASA Mars landing coverage on Ustream than many of the top cable news networks during Sunday prime time," Ustream spokesman Tony Riggins told Mashable.

The Mars rover settled into Mars' Gale Crater, surviving its white-knuckle plunge in remarkably good … Read more

NASA mohawk heartthrob racks up Twitter marriage proposals

A momentous NASA-related event occurred recently. It caused many people to stop a moment and gaze at NASA photos. It ignited Twitter into a tizzy. I'm not talking about the Mars rover landing, I'm talking about the NASA Mohawk Guy.

Flight director Bobak Ferdowsi, better known as the NASA Mohawk Guy, has caused quite a stir with his unique hairstyle, rugged good looks, and geek credentials. In the process of helping to successfully land the Mars rover, Ferdowsi also landed many hearts. … Read more

iPhone processor way outguns Mars Curiosity rover's

If processor power were all that mattered in the space race, your iPhone 4S would be about ready to land on Pluto as part of a mission to send Siri to console it following its demotion from planet to just another big, cold rock floating in space.

F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen pointed out earlier today that the onboard computer specs in NASA's Mars Curiosity rover look pretty sad when stacked up against your basic smartphone, at least on paper.

An Apple A5 processor running at 800MHz is fully four times more powerful than the 200MHz chip aboard Curiosity. The 512MB of RAM on the iPhone 4S doubles what Curiosity packs, and if you've got 64GB on your phone, that's 32 times better than the rover.… Read more

Mars Curiosity rover gets the Lego treatment

In our twisted pop geek culture, it's not cutting-edge technology until it's been replicated with the most simplistic of child's toys. With that in mind, congrats are due to NASA's Curiosity rover, which has finally been reduced to a scale model made of Legos. Oh yea, the full-size rover also landed on Mars yesterday. … Read more

How NASA tests an against-all-odds Mars rover landing

It's not every day that you land a spacecraft on Mars, even if you're NASA. And in the case of the Curiosity rover, hurtling toward a Mars landing as Sunday night turns into Monday morning, the space agency is tempting fate with a novel approach that involves a big parachute, a specially designed winch, and some very high hopes.

The rover's descent through the Martian atmosphere, which NASA has dubbed the "Seven Minutes of Terror," will be an edge-of-your-seat experience, despite the space agency's excruciating preparations.

Consider, for instance, just one key element that … Read more