Last month’s L.A. ACM Siggraph meeting was at the JPL which gave me a moment to walk around the newly renovated museum. Among the other wonderful displays there was this scale model of the Galileo space craft. The museum is periodically open to the public and worth a visit if your into cool things like space, multimedia displays of space, models of spacecraft, etc.
The presentation was nothing short of amazing. NASA’s Mars Rover drivers discussed the advantage that stereoscopy affords them when piloting the rover, from a desk on Earth, across the alien landscape. Using 3D they are able to avoid piloting the vehicle down a crevasse that would otherwise look like a shadow. We were shown examples and the benefits really were amazing. Have glasses and want to try it out? Here are some shots >
It was truly amazing to hear the Rover pilots discuss their jobs. They drive across Mars all day! They work on Martian time.