[djf]

Ya know what's been bugging me, can't NASA afford a color camera? My El Cheapo $50 Vivitar digital takes prettier pics than these!

[FourtySeven]

I've wondered that too, and reasoned two possibilities:

1. Transmitting pictures over billions of miles tends to degrade their quality (for some reason). I don't know what that could be though, I'd be interested to find out.

2. In an effort to get there "cheaper, faster", NASA invested in some REALLY cheap cameras, that at your local SAMS or Wal-mart would retail for $20, but of course, they paid $2mil or so (which is still a bargain for a government agency :) )

I like to think it's #1, just because I don't like to be reminded of how wasteful our government is. hehe

[js1138]

Ya know what's been bugging me, can't NASA afford a color camera? My El Cheapo $50 Vivitar digital takes prettier pics than these!

Your cheapo camera has a program that converts raw data to colors intended to look pleasing. Those colors would be completely useless for analysing the composition of the various rocks and sediment. The NASA cameras are calibrated, as are the color filters, so that with time and care, the actual colors can be recreated.