John Umana

Comment Threads

• Engineer in Houston commented on Avatar: A Stunning New World That NASA Is Ignoring
  Ravine - thanks for the information about Cameron's role with MastCam. That's fascinating. It would be great if the original MastCam could be completed....

• Doug Ellison commented on Avatar: A Stunning New World That NASA Is Ignoring
  Mastcam's two fixed zooms following the descope will be about 1.25 and 3.75x higher resolution than Pancam - a full Pancam mosaic is approx 20,000 pixels across and 3000 pixels tall. Using the narrow angle fixed focus mastcam - this will be more like 80,000 x 12,000 pixels - a dramatic improvement. However - I would agree strongly that the descope is a massive massive hit to the outreach potential of the camera. Especially the ability to use it for simple 3D using equal zoom on both lenses - and the orig planned wide angle ability, used to record 5...

• John Cody commented on Avatar: A Stunning New World That NASA Is Ignoring
  Cameron used the money from his last, ocean themed movie to fund his own private ocean exploration. Now he's making a space themed movie. Hmmm......

• TitanLakes commented on Avatar: A Stunning New World That NASA Is Ignoring
  I think part of the problem with MSL relates back to the cancellation of the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter. The lack of the MTO limits the bandwidth available for data return. If MRO isn't operational when MSL lands, the bandwidth situation would be even worse. I'm only speculating, but I think bandwidth limitations helped make the Mastcam susceptible to descoping. Given Cameron's interest in and involvement with the Mastcam, and his proven ability to make movies that connect with the public, I do think NASA should have given some serious consideration to doing something in connection with this movie. NASA wouldn't...

• Bob Mahoney commented on Avatar: A Stunning New World That NASA Is Ignoring
  While I'm all for NASA doing everything it can to engage the public in non-hokey ways and Keith's specific ideas offer interesting possibilities, one potential danger (perhaps real or perhaps only in NASA PAO's hesitant mind) with a movie like this is that NASA and its doings might come off looking exceedingly dull compared to the 'wow' presented in the movie. Granted, it's only a matter of perception, but in some ways (McCurdy described it in his "Space and the American Imagination") that may be the core issue here: the public lost its immediate interest in real spaceflight in part...