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Curiosity rover tags Mars with Morse tire tracks
slashgear.com ^ | Aug 6th 2012 | Chris Davies

Posted on 08/09/2012 8:16:42 PM PDT by Bobalu

NASA’s Curiosity rover may not look like an urban menace, but the robot explorer will in fact be steadily tagging the Martian surface as it trundles, leaving a name-check of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory back home. The clandestine graffiti is thanks to part of the rover’s visual odometry system, John Graham-Cumming points out, which tracks the marks left by a series of asymmetrically arranged holes in the wheels. The position of those holes, however, isn’t random: in fact, it’s Morse Code.

(Excerpt) Read more at slashgear.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: curiosity; mars; marsrover; morsecode; nasa; rover
This is the sort of thing you get when radio hams are involved in a project :-)

I often use morse in my embedded systems projects as a debugging aid.

1 posted on 08/09/2012 8:16:56 PM PDT by Bobalu
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To: Bobalu

di dah dit!


2 posted on 08/09/2012 8:18:46 PM PDT by bigbob
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To: Bobalu

There was a recent article about an elderly Radio Operator who (according to the journalist) used to use Morris Code to send messages.


3 posted on 08/09/2012 8:22:00 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Roger Taney? Not a bad Chief Justice. John Roberts? A really awful Chief Justice.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

He quit his job at the cat food advertising agency to become a journalist?


4 posted on 08/09/2012 8:36:16 PM PDT by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists, call 'em what you will, they ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: Bobalu

._..
_ _
.._.
._
_ _ _


5 posted on 08/09/2012 8:38:13 PM PDT by stormer
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To: bigbob

best bent wire


6 posted on 08/09/2012 8:43:09 PM PDT by spokeshave (The only people better off today than 4 years ago are the Prisoners at Guantanamo.)
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To: Bobalu

Taggers are everywhere these daze.


7 posted on 08/09/2012 8:50:14 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: stormer

I want color pictures.


8 posted on 08/09/2012 9:00:35 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: Bobalu
Do you suppose the martians have any of the old 1950s magazines with the LEARN TO BE A TELEGRAPH OPERATOR ads?

Isn't it true that the only people in the world who read Morse code are elderly, retired telegraphy operators, ham operators and American jet pilots? Couldn't we have just found those guys here on earth?

But it does remind of the old joke. What's black and white and black and white and black and white? A penguin rolling down hill. What's black and white, rolls in the grass and moans? A wounded nun.

I'll be here all week.
9 posted on 08/09/2012 9:42:10 PM PDT by righttackle44 (I may not be much, but I raised a United States Marine.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
an elderly Radio Operator who (according to the journalist) used to use Morris Code to send messages.

Did he get together with guys dressed in funny outfits to dance with them too?

Morris Dancing

10 posted on 08/09/2012 10:12:32 PM PDT by Bernard Marx
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To: Bobalu

Ahh, scientists. What a bunch of cutups they are!


11 posted on 08/09/2012 11:46:21 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: Bobalu

The Morse Option was only like $400,000 extra.


12 posted on 08/10/2012 3:38:40 AM PDT by KingLudd
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To: Bernard Marx

Y’know Morris Dancing?... Well, ‘e’s be’’er than Morris!

Benny Hill


13 posted on 08/10/2012 3:58:16 AM PDT by epluribus_2
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To: Bernard Marx
You beat me to it.

Another "Morris" though not the classic Oxford type:

Abbots Bromley Horn Dance

14 posted on 08/10/2012 4:52:08 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGS Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: Bobalu
The position of those holes, however, isn’t random: in fact, it’s Morse Code.

Drink more Ovaltine.

15 posted on 08/10/2012 4:55:57 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys=Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat, but they know what's best for you.)
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To: Bernard Marx
And then there's the Britannia Coconut Dancers

Great fun. You don't get this kind of long-running earnest eccentricity anywhere in the good ol' U.S. of A.

16 posted on 08/10/2012 4:55:57 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGS Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: Beowulf9

I would suggest that the tread design print is actually the product of an engineer’s mind, not that of a scientist.


17 posted on 08/10/2012 5:06:15 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Present failure and impending death yield irrational action))
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