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Everyday science

Dress inspired by Perseverance Rover’s parachute, augmented reality Sun brightens your living room

26 Feb 2021 Hamish Johnston
Perseverance Rover parachute
Decoder ring: illustration of the Perseverance Rover parachute showing the decoded message. (Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Dare mighty things” was the message surreptitiously encoded into the parachute of NASA’s Perseverance Rover, which landed on Mars last week. Now, designers at Svaha Apparel have created a dress based on the pattern of red, white and black segments that made up the parachute. The company is currently running a pre-order campaign and says that it will produce the dress is if gets at least £10,000 worth of orders. According to the Svaha website, the goal has already been met – so the dress may soon be available for $69.99. The company is running a similar campaign for a parachute-inspired t-shirt, which retails for $24.99.

In 2003, the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson lit up the Turbine Hall of London’s Tate Modern with an artificial Sun. Now you can brighten up a room in your house on a dull winter’s day with a virtual version of that artwork – at least when you look at the room through the camera of your smartphone.

Eliasson has teamed up with Daniel Birnbaum, director of the augmented reality platform Acute Art to create a Pokemon Go-like version of his Sun that appears on your screen. And if that gets too bright for you, a rain cloud is available – perhaps followed by a virtual rainbow.

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