s Curiosity rover, but the timing was not right.
"The possibility for a zoom-camera upgrade was very much worth pursuing, but time became too short for the levels of testing that would be needed for them to confidently replace the existing cameras," Mars Science Laboratory Project scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology said in a statement.
The rover, which will launch this year, will include the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument already on the rover, but work has stopped on a 3D upgrade, NASA said. The device was developed by Malin Space Science System, where Cameron serves as co-investigator. Malin built the Mastcam last year and secured funding from NASA to see if a zoom version could be developed in time for testing on Curiosity.
Malin also provided the Mars Hand Lens Imager and the Mars Descent Imager instruments on Curiosity. It will continue work on the zoom system, but not for this launch.
"While Curiosity won't benefit from the 3D motion imaging that the zooms enable, I'm certain that this technology will play an important role in future missions," Cameron said in a statement. "In the meantime, we're certainly going to make the most of our cameras that are working so well on Curiosity right now."
Mastcam principal investigator Michael Malin said, "Although we are very disappointed that the zoom cameras will not fly, we expect the fixed-focal-length cameras to achieve all of the primary science objectives of the Mastcam investigation."
Testing on the rover is underway at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It is schedule
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