NASA Mars Science Rover Curiosity bright object

Imagine, a field geologist finds a scrap of foil – part of a candy wrapper, perhaps – that has slipped out of his pocket.

He then becomes distracted and spends an entire day examining the foil, instead of actual geology.

He’d probably be fired in short order.

That’s just what NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity did earlier this week, and no one has commented on it. For a $2.6 billion robot, it’s not a firing offense. It’s standard operating procedure.

Just something to keep in mind the next time someone says robots are more efficient than humans.

Written by Astro1 on October 11th, 2012 , Space Policy and Management Tags:

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