Put a Supertop on that Rover!

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is well into week 3 of its 2 year mission right now.  What’s it doing on Mars: getting  its off-roading, that’s what.  Roaming  the Red Planet where Arnold Schwarzenegger discovered his true fate and delivered clean, breathable oxygen for all, Curiosity is taking high res photos, vid caps, and going around “firing laser beams at rocks and other materials to find out what they're made of; I'd say that's one of its most impressive instruments," according to planetary scientist Michael Mischna.  Laser beams but no fender flares, hm?  And cameras but where’s the Supertop, eh?  If it were up to us off-roadies, we would have unleashed Curiosity decked out with front bumper, winch mount, pro comp lights, fender flares, running boards, soft top, fire extinguisher, and maybe a spoiler.

Here’s what’s up:  Curiosity gauges Martian weather. It films in HD. And in 360-degree panoramas. The rover is basically a very expensive, and very advanced, robotic photographer. Curiosity -- full name: The Mars Science Laboratory -- carries 10 total instruments, among them two rectangular "eyes" -- the first a primary imaging camera featuring different filters and focal lengths, and the second a large, circular camera that fires a laser that turns rock into vapor. (Another camera on the rover picks up the images from the laser-firer and interprets their composition as they go up in smoke).  The laser is also to fend off marauding Decepticons from interfering.  That was just made up, by the way – Decepticons are already here on Earth.