James Cameron, scientist-in-chief?
Maybe James Cameron will have to settle for just making movies.
Well, for now.
The science-minded filmmaker had been building a 3-D camera for Mars rover Curiosity that he said would give us a better look at the Red Planet.
But the Associated Press reported Friday that NASA is stopping work on the zoom camera because there won't be enough time to test it before Curiosity launches later this year.
The move calls to mind other Hollywood personalities who have offered their help on public-works projects, notably Kevin Costner developing a device that earlier this year he said could have capped the BP oil spill (it didn't). Cameron himself was part of a government "listening session" on the disaster.
The director did say in a statement Friday that he hopes the camera technology he's developing still will be used on future space missions. In the meantime, we suppose, we'll have to live with Curiosity's images of blue-faced Zoe Saldana lookalikes in 2-D only.
-- Steven Zeitchik
twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT
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Photo: James Cameron. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
Yeah, another example of how morons in So Cal thing they're so important. In this case, NASA is looking for help. This is the same agency that's been whizzing away billions over the years on the shuttle program while the Russians are making a MANNED mission to Mars this year. Oh, and Russia also has a program this year where where they're sending up a craft to clean up a bunch of space debris. Yes, Cameron can help as much as he wants.
Posted by: Ed Norton | 03/26/2011 at 07:14 AM
BRAVO James Cameron. You are trying to go where nobody went before.
I am with you. YOU have COSMIC PASSION and Intuition that may work better than SCIENCE! WE DON'T KNOW everything about PARANOMAL.
You have paranomal quality. No doubt!
Posted by: Olga Altstatt | 03/26/2011 at 02:46 PM
We've had 3D Cameras on Mars for years.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MartianSummer#p/u/5/cNEDOa3L5jU
Posted by: Mars Man | 03/26/2011 at 06:55 PM
Talk about someone in tinseltown full of greed, self-adoration and self-obsession. Give us a break!
Posted by: Dancing Scorpion | 03/27/2011 at 08:12 AM
CAMERON LOVES HIMSELF SO MUCH I WANT TO PUKE. HOPEFULLY, HE WILL CRAWL BACK INTO HIS HOLE AND SPARE TINSELTOWN AND MOVIE FANS HIS GREEDY, SELF-OBSESSION.
Posted by: Dancing Scorpion | 03/27/2011 at 10:40 AM
If this man has any respect for science, it's not apparent in "Avatar," where the blue people have zero competitors in their environment and so can live in nature-addled bliss until the Evil Outsiders show up.
This isn't how evolution works. Evolution works through competition, suffering, and strife. Life arises in all colors and if the blue dominates, it's because the blue managed to wipe out the red, green and yellow.
The blue people in "Avatar" are more of a political/religious fantasy than they are a model for actual alien life according to what we know about the science of evolution here.
Posted by: Patricia | 03/28/2011 at 10:22 AM
Much bigger, meaner, stripey smurfs with bow and arrows...
Posted by: Jaun Jau | 03/28/2011 at 04:38 PM
James Cameron. Was your ' movie ' Avatar , a message about republican space alien humanoids, mining and pillaging your planet?
Posted by: Zandar the space alien | 03/28/2011 at 08:21 PM
Uh, Kevin Costner NEVER said he had a device that could have capped the BP oil spill!!! It was a device that separates oil from water and it works and BP used it though they probably didn't use it as long as they needed to!!
BP also needed something to get the oily sediment off the bottom of the ocean but that's not been done yet!!
Posted by: Janet | 03/29/2011 at 01:28 AM
---WHY's LATIMES ignoring the issue
of 'eugenics friendly' Cameron fleeing
the upcoming 'Cleopatra' retread after
word of predictive programming for the
fast approaching mainstreaming of
'suicide culture' spread----?
Posted by: anon Ymus | 04/03/2011 at 08:59 PM