Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. When Mars Surveyor arrives at Mars in 2002, it will carry a sundial. Even though batteries and a solar array will power the Mars Surveyor Lander , the sundial has been included to allow a prominent public display of time. The sundial idea was the brainchild of Bill Nye the Science Guy , who noticed that a post originally used for camera calibration could be redesigned. Since the Sun casts similar shadows on Mars and Earth, accurate calibration of the shadow placement on the Martian Sundial will tell a curious inspector of returned images both the time of day and the season.
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