QUOTE
The Rover mission planners have always been concerned to capture scenic vistas; but as the mission has gone on, they have become better at it (having missed, I think, an early opportunity to get a full panorama of the mid-distance Endurance crater) -- and it seems to have become more of a goal in and of itself.
Witness the careful positioning for the current panorama -- I will not say of Concepcion, but with Concepcion as its focal point -- with the rays of detritus pointing to the mountains (or whatever they are) on the horizon; a framing, one might say, that goes beyond the needs of pure science.
Witness the careful positioning for the current panorama -- I will not say of Concepcion, but with Concepcion as its focal point -- with the rays of detritus pointing to the mountains (or whatever they are) on the horizon; a framing, one might say, that goes beyond the needs of pure science.
The posts from FredK and Ngunn opposing this idea surprised me, and made me realize that I had left out a key point regarding the framing of the Concepcion panorama, namely, that a purely scientific panorama at this site would have had a lower camera angle to take in as much of the strew field as possible, and would have ignored the distant peaks of Endeavour; my point being that the current framing has been selected for both scientific and inspirational value.
One could argue that it is scientifically important to show Concepcion in relationship to Endeavour -- but come on! The former is a thirty foot crater, and the latter, I think, thirty or so kilometers in diameter! Not to mention that Opportunity will have time, while on the run, to take tons of pictures of the distant peaks.
In short: a person who was 100% scientist -- without a drop of human emotion -- would be keeping his or her head down at Concepcion. But our Rover scientists are more complete human beings than that!