Today's APOD....Please explain

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Hey, I just figured it out.....

Isnt that the SUN on the left of the machine?



Cheers

Chris

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Yes, this is interesting - I agree not sure about the connection !!

Cheers Petra d.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

It's relation to astronomy is........

From what I can gather from the blurb, the context is in relation to the previous giants of "crawler" machines, those that transported the Apollo and Space Shuttle craft.

The image may be "a few years old", but the technology behind the NASA crawlers is much older. And the size of the newer excavators dwarf the NASA craft too.

I went on an excursion to an open cut coal mine in the Hunter Valley some 20 years ago. The excavators there are electic powered. The engineer that conducted the tour said that that when the machine was loaded and in motion, the meters at the power plant registered this as significant fluctuations within their readings. ZZAP!

[Jen]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

I've said some time ago they have lost the plot

[OICURMT]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

It's relation to astronomy is........
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101024.html?ref=nf

Terra-forming.

[Tom Davis (Tom)]

Originally Posted by Screwdriverone

Hey, I just figured it out.....

Isnt that the SUN on the left of the machine?

LOL!!!

Tom

[Ric]

I remember seeing that doing the round in emails a few years ago.

Maybe no-one submitted a picture so they "dug" up the first thing they could find.

[Rick Petrie]

Looks like one of the diggers from Pandora (Avatar) as Multiweb said.
The future of Earth as at Pandora. Maybe they're looking for UNOBTANIUM.
To do with Astronomy though, I'm with Jjjnettie!!