James Cameron convinces NASA to use 3D camera on next Mars mission

What do you do once you've broken your own record for the world's highest-grossing picture film? Well, you go offworld, of course. James Cameron, in his infinite benevolence and multidimensional wisdom, has convinced NASA bigwigs not to forgo the inclusion of a high-res 3D camera on the Curiosity (aka Mars Science Laboratory) rover, which is set to depart for the red planet in 2011. Budget overruns had led to the scrapping of the autostereoscopic idea, but the director-man -- who has been involved with this project for a good few years now -- felt the results of the mission would be far more engaging if people could see them in 3D. Hey, if he can make us watch the Blue Man Group reenactment of Fern Gully, don't bet on Cameron failing to make extraterrestrial rubble interesting with his 3D voodoo.

[glenskey Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:18AM]

hehe

[N3XuSeXe Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:21AM]

3D....for the extra wow factor?

[gargle Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:55AM]

@glenskey I'm assuming they're assuming that in the 3-5(?) years from now, when the robot gets there, people will all have 3D televisions.. because right now it wouldn't be of much use, except NASA employees watching 3D mars with smurfs on their huge screens.

[Sherifftruman Posted Apr 30th 2010 6:20AM]

@gargle Yeah because like the tv manufacturers say everyone is just dying to go out and buy one so surely we'll all gave several by then. Yeah that's the ticket!

[TC Posted Apr 30th 2010 6:36AM]

@glenskey We need to hope the martians are still struggling to develop color television, otherwise when we visit with our 3D glasses tech, we will be forever known as beings from 'the Lame Planet'.

[noyourmom Posted Apr 30th 2010 9:42AM]

@you jerks

are you fucking kidding me? its motherfuckin 3D TELEPRESENCE ON MARS!!! you call yourselves nerds...

[R2D2 Posted Apr 30th 2010 12:13PM]

If NASA needs more money for this rover, why not just let Google slap a street-view camera on that bad boy...as long as they blur out the martian's facial features that is...

[Duckman Posted Apr 30th 2010 1:00PM]

@noyourmom
does this imply that all of the previous 3d photos weren't 3d? am I the only one that put on 3d glasses to look at the 3d pictures of mars?

[messykohnja Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:59PM]

@TC That blue-alien is a cutey -- Probably this persuasion is for the Avatar 2 plan by Cameron. http://j.mp/avatar-2-coming-soon

[willrs Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:19AM]

lets just work on them getting an hd camera up there first...

[MannyCalavera Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:19AM]

how does James Cameron CONVINCE NASA!

[Sherifftruman Posted Apr 30th 2010 6:17AM]

@MannyCalavera Well right now it's possible that Cameron has more money than NASA.
;-)

[John22s Posted Apr 30th 2010 7:35AM]

@MannyCalavera
talk about pulling your weight!

[flanders Posted Apr 30th 2010 7:43AM]

@MannyCalavera First he starts telling people not to watch his "masterpiece" Pocahontas in Space on portable devices, now he's telling NASA to use 3D cameras? Who the hell does he think he is? I'm glad his ex-wife took the award for Best Picture! But he still needs to be knocked down a couple of more pegs.

[tekdemon Posted Apr 30th 2010 8:04PM]

@MannyCalavera Maybe he told NASA that he'd use the footage to make a billion dollar epic so NASA would have funds lol

[Sheldon Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:21AM]

-1 on the photo Engadget, I was expecting at least a smurf on Mars but no, not even a blue coloured rover :-(

[Vlad Savov Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:26AM]

@Sheldon Better late than never, eh?

[Sunweb Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:26AM]

@Sheldon

It's not 5:30AM yet, give them a break...

[Hobsie Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:28AM]

@Vlad Savov

*thumbs up* :P

[Sheldon Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:35AM]

@Vlad Savov
Brilliant! :-)

Thank you (not saying much for me but it made my day).

@Sunweb
But I think at even 5:30AM a smurf would come and great an intrepid rover.

[N3XuSeXe Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:36AM]

@Sheldon
Your wish is his command.

[Hobsie Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:25AM]

So let me get this straight. The James Cameron has convinced NASA to spend ridiculous amounts of money to stick a 3D camera on a Mars rover for little more than Funzies?

O_o

[lecter Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:33AM]

@Hobsie

By "convinced" I think they mean that some cash exchanged hands for this to happen...

[brianbobcat Posted May 2nd 2010 12:19AM]

@lecter There dang well have been some money involved going to Nasa. At this point, I wouldn't even mind an ad on the vehicle for all the Smurfs to see. But seriously, The Onion had a story a while back about Nasa taking sponsorships and the photo they mocked up showed the shuttle looking like a NASCAR car.

I say bring on the sponsorships.

-Brian

[Gad Get Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:33AM]

You'll be glad we've got that extra dimension when the rover stumbles upon those little green men. Or is it big blue men?

[lexitu Posted Apr 30th 2010 5:48AM]

What a smartass! He's just trying to find a cheap way to shoot Avatar 2.

[Gad Get Posted Apr 30th 2010 6:00AM]

Because if there's one word that describes Cameron, it's "thrifty".

[HowdyDoody Posted Apr 30th 2010 6:24AM]

@lexitu

....by hitching a ride on a $2.3 billion rover? Yes, much cheaper than what Avatar 1 had cost.

[Punisher Plum Posted Apr 30th 2010 6:24AM]

@Gad Get

lol.

[mocax Posted Apr 30th 2010 6:35AM]

3D cameras would be useful in distinguishing rocks from alien artifacts.

[RabidAppleFanboi Posted Apr 30th 2010 6:40AM]

3-D? On Mars? Feh. Been done already: http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/3d/

[NYNY Posted Apr 30th 2010 9:32AM]

@RabidAppleFanboi That's exactly what I thought. Nothing new here except this is probably for 3d video rather than just still.

[tbonet Posted Apr 30th 2010 10:41AM]

@NYNY Yes but what is the point of a video camera on Mars? There are very few things on Mars a video camera could capture better than a still camera.

[Nicnac Posted Apr 30th 2010 2:16PM]

@tbonet
oh yeah? how about a martian dust devil in motion?

Listen to all the pathetic haters in here. This is progress. Why should we be happy with SD (or HD video)? Or 3d stills.
This is the new era. We should see the surface of Mars, or the Moon, or Titan, or where ever in 3d HD, not what we were seeing 5 years ago...
Thanks Mr Cameron for being one person in this country continuously pushing the boundaries...

[Alaind Posted Apr 30th 2010 7:06AM]

Just a friendly reminder: James Cameron is a Canadian...There you go !

[Mike V Posted Apr 30th 2010 7:18AM]

So NASA is going to buy the rigs from one of Cameron's companies I guess?

[think before you react Posted Apr 30th 2010 7:30AM]

"Blue Man Group reenactment of Fern Gully"

Oh snap!! Engadget threw down the gauntlet!

Take that Jim Cameron!!

[tomk35 Posted Apr 30th 2010 8:14AM]

This wouldn't be the first time NASA used stereoscopic imaging on Mars. The two Viking landers had two cameras each, back in 1976. Though theses weren't binocular cameras, they could be used to produce some 3D imaging (actually had some scientific use).

Some of the other landers also produced 3D images.

[Bigdjeff Posted Apr 30th 2010 8:44AM]

I think this would be awesome to see. It would be great in a movie theatre.

[Zucker Posted Apr 30th 2010 8:50AM]

Great another Mars movie

[Werner7 Posted Apr 30th 2010 9:12AM]

If there was weird animals and amazing interconnecting plant life I could get it, but what action is happening on the moon for 3D? Nothing? Okay lets go 3D

[StraightUp Posted Apr 30th 2010 10:30AM]

Can we get James Cameron to operate the 3D camera.

[kapryt Posted Apr 30th 2010 11:37AM]

@StraightUp

I'm for that... as long as they don't give him enough oxygen to last to finish Avatar 2

[Endeavour1934 Posted Apr 30th 2010 10:35AM]

Yay! GUNNM movie!

[d0ug Posted Apr 30th 2010 11:48AM]

This is newsworthy? Every mars rover, since atleast the pathfinder has had 3D cameras

http://www.google.com/search?q=mars+rover+3d+camera

[d0ug Posted Apr 30th 2010 11:51AM]

@d0ug lets try that again, should have been a link to images search

http://images.google.com/images?q=mars%20rover%203d%20camera&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

[techlord Posted Apr 30th 2010 12:12PM]

If he want it so bad, let him paid the equipment to Nasa, after all he probably make 500million + in avatar.

[NeatOman Posted Apr 30th 2010 1:34PM]

I wouldn't watch avatar again, good just once... so you know whats up.

[Beinss Posted Apr 30th 2010 2:28PM]

Doesn't NASA also use their high res images/videos to study the planet? 3D cameras do not have near the resolution as a normal camera... So is this space exploration just for movie goers or are they actually trying to get some science done?

[Beinss Posted Apr 30th 2010 2:31PM]

@Beinss or do they mean theyre also including a 3d camera in accordance with their normal equipment. That would be respectable to generate funding from the public. Tho while I havent looked at anything about the rovers I assume power management on those things is very important since solar energy can only supply so much at once.