My Phone Just Got Way Cooler

This is awesome.  A computer scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a smartphone app that allows users to see images from the latest download link of the Mars rover Opportunity as soon as they're available.

If you're interested, the app is called Mars Images and it is developed by PowellWare.

Yes, I've already downloaded and tried out the app.  Yes, it is wicked cool.

Will The Cat Kill Curiosity?

The cat may not kill curiosity, but the federal government just might. A continuous underestimate of the costs required to design, build, and deploy the newest Mars rover has made its future a bit uncertain. You can read more about the ongoing problems with the Mars Science Laboratory here.

I certainly hope that NASA is able to get their house in order with this project.

And speaking of Curiosity, I'll take this as a chance to remind you that NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has a live webcam in the cleanroom where the Mars rover is being assembled. It's pretty cool watching the rover come together, so I recommend following the link if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Curiosity Didn't Kill the Cat, But It Could if It Wanted To

Oh wow. I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated this thing. But I guess that's how it goes when you're preparing for a final defense and trying to pin down a job for after graduation. Add my current position as live-in babysitter and sprinkle in a little part-time work in the lab getting a pilot study going, and you've got a daily schedule that leaves very little room for blogging.

For those who are interested, my final defense will be November 10th at 10:00am in room 259 of the Agriculture Engineering Building. The defense presentation will be public, so come by if you'd like.

Now for my main reason for creating this post: as a follower of NASA's Twitter feed, I was informed of this live video of the assembly of the next generation Mars rover, called Curiosity. I believe that the folks you see working in the clean room are currently assembling the robotic arm of the rover at the time of posting this. If you're getting to this post, and therefore the link, much later than when this update was posted, I'm not sure what you'll see. But it appears as though you'll find some sort of rover assembly at that URL for quite some time. Anyways, it's pretty awesome, so I recommend checking it out.

Posting will probably continue to be intermittent (or nonexistent) for at least the next week and a half or so. I will try to begin adding regular updates after my defense, but it will be crunch time for getting a job and moving, so we'll see how it goes. Until next time, enjoy watching assembly of the Mars rover...or whatever else happens to be at that particular URL when you click the link.