posted on Aug, 14 2007 @ 02:42 AM
Cameras require phenomenal amounts of power. Why do you think most/all the images you see from the Mars rovers are stills? On Earth photovoltaic cells
operate with something like 9% efficiency, or you could pay 100 times more and get only 4 times the efficiency (very pricey things), and on Mars there
is approx. 1% of the light we get here on earth, so you would have to charge capacitors or batteries up to operate cameras for short bursts of
filming. Sustained recording would be out of the question.
Also, transmitting 24 or 12 or even 6 frames per second back to earth is a tedious and power-eating task. Plus, still frames give far better
definition. The best handheld camcorders can only record 4 megapixel still images, while smaller, handheld cameras can record up to 42MP.
All up, video imaging is something that is not really all this feasible once you look into it. Of course someone is going to say, 'why don't you
just stick a camera on a rover?!' but unfortunately it's not quite as simple as that.