Friday, August 10, 2012

The Best Mars Curosity Rover Trivia You'll See All Day

I was cruising Jesse's Just A Car Guy Blog today, and saw something that I just had to steal borrow to share with my dozens of regular readers. Did you know that as the Mars Curiosity Rover travels across the surface of the red planet, it will be leaving the letters "JPL" on the surface in Morse Code? Check out the picture of the tire treads.

Click to enlarge

As both a car guy, and a geek (I hold a Tech Plus amateur radio license), this is something that put a big smile on my face.

Here is another Morse code Easter Egg for those of you in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area.  If you find yourself in the North Dallas area some night, take a look towards the Texas Instruments headquarters site near LBJ and US 75 (Central Expressway) and look for TI's radio antenna.  You'll see it because it flashes the letters "TI" in Morse Code (one long flash, then two short ones).  I wonder how many other Morse Code Easter eggs there are out there?

Just A Car Guy
The ARRL website about the tire tread code.  
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2 comments:

  1. WendellJune 7, 2013 at 3:28 PM

    The BNSF Railway has evolved from The Chicago Burlington and Quincy, fondly called "The Q". In the day, it was company policy for all engineers to blow the whistle or horn Morse code dash dash dot dash, for the letter "Q". Today many engineers still blow their horns in honor of the "Q".
    Wendell

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  2. JeffJune 7, 2013 at 5:05 PM

    Being from Aurora, I should have known that, but I didn't. Thanks Wendell!

    ReplyDelete

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