Mars 1909 Lincoln
mt_msla
Posts: 815 ✭✭✭✭
mt_msla
Posts: 815 ✭✭✭✭
mt_msla
Posts: 815 ✭✭✭✭
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Thanks @mt_msla!
“NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on December 2, 2018, Sol 2248 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 20:54:15 UTC.”
I heard that coin is out of this world
tee hee
Steve
some say its on a different planet as well, just sayin is all.
That’s a lucky penny it will lady forever unless hit by asteroid of course
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
Why a copper coin? Maybe it's an experiment.
I believe the worst-case result would be crusty green carbonate corrosion. Then, copper might be a poor material choice for Mars (structures, plumbing, catalysts, etc).
(Note: The thin atmosphere on Mars is about 96% CO2.)
Best case scenario: Copper aids in the production of ethanol when exposed to carbon dioxide and water.
Successful BST transactions with forum members thebigeng, SPalladino, Zoidmeister, coin22lover, coinsarefun, jwitten, CommemKing.
For real? Why a cent and why 1909?
Yes, and you can hear it combined with other worldly winds!
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/martian-wind-sound-now/story?id=59682477
Awesome! Glad I am still alive for this.
NASA multimedia release about the 1909 cent. Also note that it is called a cent and not a penny. Must be a numismatists/coin collector on the staff.
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“Lincoln Cent on Mars Rover
The Lincoln penny in this photograph is part of a camera calibration target attached to NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, which is on track for a landing on Mars the night of Aug. 5 to Aug. 6, 2012.
The calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument also includes color references, a metric bar graphic, and a stair-step pattern for depth calibration. The MAHLI adjustable-focus, color camera at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm can be used for taking extreme close-ups of rocks and soil on Mars, as well as images from greater distances.
The penny is a nod to geologists' tradition of placing a coin or other object of known scale as a size reference in close-up photographs of rocks, and it gives the public a familiar object for perceiving size easily when it will be viewed by MAHLI on Mars.
The specific coin, provided by MAHLI's principal investigator, Ken Edgett, is a 1909 "VDB" penny. That was the first year Lincoln pennies were minted and the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The VDB refers to the initials of the coin's designer, Victor D. Brenner, which are on the reverse side. Brenner based the coin's low-relief portrait of Lincoln on a photograph taken Feb. 9, 1864, three day's before Lincoln's 55th birthday, by Anthony Berger in the Washington, D.C., studio of Mathew Brady.
This photograph of the penny on Curiosity was taken in August 2011 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center as the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft was being prepared for launch. The mission launched on Nov. 26, 2011. It will deliver the rover Curiosity to Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012. With MAHLI and nine other science instruments, Curiosity will investigate whether the area has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, supplied MAHLI and three other cameras for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, and built Curiosity.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech”
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15285.html
Abe Lincoln, thus, is the first President to land on Mars.
Love the 1909 VDB on Mars... looking a bit dusty... might need to come back to NCS for some conservation!
And don't forget that we have two state quarters which zipped by Pluto a few years ago. And in a few weeks on 1/1/19 they'll be passing a small Kuiper belt object over 4 billion miles away.
Florida and Maryland Quarters on New Horizons
So that means that George Washington is the first President to travel beyond the orbit of Pluto?
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 448
That cent will command a significant premium if brought back to earth at some point... and slabbed....Cheers, RickO