Slashdot Mirror

Hugh Pickens writes "Computerworld reports that movie director James Cameron, of Avatar and Titanic fame, is working with Malin Space Science Systems Inc. to build an updated 3-D camera that will be installed on the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity if completed in time, to be the machine's 'science-imaging workhorse,' says Michael Malin, who is working on the camera team. Malin delivered two cameras to be installed on the rover's main mast; however NASA has provided Malin with funding to work with Cameron to build alternatives to these two cameras. 'The fixed focal length [cameras] we just delivered will do almost all of the science we originally proposed. But they cannot provide a wide field of view with comparable eye stereo,' he says. 'With the zoom [cameras], we'll be able to take cinematic video sequences in 3-D on the surface of Mars.'"

Neil Halelamien writes "Back in 1999, satellite images were photographed of 5-mile-high whirlwinds streaking across the surface of Mars. A couple of months ago the Spirit rover got a close up view of whirlwind tracks, and this past week photographed a whirlwind in action (animation). It's thought that these dust devils may be responsible for the mystery power boost to the rovers' solar cells. Last year the rovers also spotted clouds and frost."

An anonymous reader writes "In a remarkable series of orbital pictures, the Mars Global Surveyor's cameras have imaged the tracks of the Spirit rover on the surface. Individual debris pieces including the backshell and lander are visible with remarkable clarity using an innovative roll of the satellite."

An anonymous reader writes "The garbage left behind by the twin Mars rovers was highlighted this week by the close-up view in panorama of the Spirit rovers' heatshield. Not including the various Viking, Pathfinder and some crippled probes, the human contribution of rover hardware to the martian surface now includes a few odd nicknacks, parachutes, heatshields, back shell,landing petals and many wheel tracks. It may be September before the rovers themselves become part of the red planet's debris field."

An anonymous reader writes "The garbage left behind by the twin Mars rovers was highlighted this week by the close-up view in panorama of the Spirit rovers' heatshield. Not including the various Viking, Pathfinder and some crippled probes, the human contribution of rover hardware to the martian surface now includes a few odd nicknacks, parachutes, heatshields, back shell,landing petals and many wheel tracks. It may be September before the rovers themselves become part of the red planet's debris field."

An anonymous reader writes "Finding its lander inside a 20-meter crater, NASA has further homed in its latest lander's location and a major science target for the Opportunity rover using high resolution orbital cameras from 400 km overhead. The lander's parachute even casted a shadow nearby this target [another 150 meter crater] during descent. Earlier, each bounce of the Spirit rover could be imaged, along with its backshell, heatshield and parachute debris. Even with dust and weathering, this method could find Pathfinder and Viking [barely], and a technical discussion with pictures is at Malin Space Systems, which designed the Mars Orbital Camera. Because of uncertainties in location, however, it would take 60 years to find the lost Mars Polar Lander, but they may look for Beagle if conditions aren't too dusty."

An anonymous reader writes "Finding its lander inside a 20-meter crater, NASA has further homed in its latest lander's location and a major science target for the Opportunity rover using high resolution orbital cameras from 400 km overhead. The lander's parachute even casted a shadow nearby this target [another 150 meter crater] during descent. Earlier, each bounce of the Spirit rover could be imaged, along with its backshell, heatshield and parachute debris. Even with dust and weathering, this method could find Pathfinder and Viking [barely], and a technical discussion with pictures is at Malin Space Systems, which designed the Mars Orbital Camera. Because of uncertainties in location, however, it would take 60 years to find the lost Mars Polar Lander, but they may look for Beagle if conditions aren't too dusty."

Angry Toad writes "According to Spaceflight Now, NASA is getting ready to take suggestions for what parts of the surface of Mars the Mars Global Surveyor should take pictures of next. Currently there are high-resolution images for around 3% of the surface of Mars, and they are willing to consider any reasonable suggestions for new imaging locations. Of course this is a publicity stunt, but all the same it would be rather cool to have a bit of 'virtual control' of the MGS camera."

11223 writes "Mars Global Surveyor has snapped a picture of Earth from its Mars orbit. This picture, the first of its kind, shows Earth, the Moon, and Jupiter. Earth is visible as a half disc exposing North and South America; apparently the Moon had to be "processed" into the picture."

Bamf writes "In the past few days a lot of brand new Mars data was released. The Mars Global Surveyor Camera released 11,664 new images (123,800 released to date), and the THEMIS instrument aboard Odyssey released 8,761 new infrared and visible light images (20,010 released to date). For the short attention span crowd, there's new captioned images here and here. Last month, every superhero's favorite instrument, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer, released element maps of iron, potassium, thorium and silicon, as well as a map of polar hydrogen."

Bamf writes "In the past few days a lot of brand new Mars data was released. The Mars Global Surveyor Camera released 11,664 new images (123,800 released to date), and the THEMIS instrument aboard Odyssey released 8,761 new infrared and visible light images (20,010 released to date). For the short attention span crowd, there's new captioned images here and here. Last month, every superhero's favorite instrument, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer, released element maps of iron, potassium, thorium and silicon, as well as a map of polar hydrogen."

DerOle writes "Here http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/ are about 78.000 pics from Mars, shoot by the Mars Global Surveyor. There are even more pics to come, about 163 gigs of uncompressed data. From the page : MOC is operated daily at Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS). MOC consists of three cameras: A narrow angle system that provides grayscale high resolution views of the planet's surface (typically, 1.5 to 12 meters/pixel), and red and blue wide angle cameras that provide daily global weather monitoring, context images to determine where the narrow angle views were actually acquired, and regional coverage to monitor variable surface features such as polar frost and wind streaks. Most of the high resolution images are obtained by careful planning and inspection of predicted MGS orbits by Mars scientists working at and/or visiting MSSS. The company is also responsible for archiving the data once they are received on Earth."

angkor writes: "AP is reporting that the Mars Global Surveyor snapped its 100,000th picture of Mars. The Viking orbiters took about 55,000 total. Even better is that over 78,000 of the images are online in the (MOC Gallery). You get to click on a map of Mars to zoom into a specific region. Wow."

Thorgal writes: "NASA does it again! Thanks to fine people at Malin Space Science Systems we have best yet image of Cydonia Face, with pixel resolution of 1.56m per pixel and excellent angle, again leaving no doubt about what the "face" really is (hint: a mesa). There is also a perspective image generated from laser altimetry data and even a hiking trail designed for future Mars explorers. Definitely a must see!"

Lets start things off with a thing of beauty: ChazeFroy notes that Malin Space Science Systems has tons of really excellent images from the Mars Global Surveyor. Now something of evil: TsEA sends us HTML magic: a true guideline for HTML usage. 3 things that prove that The net Will destroy humanity: BlackNova sent us a Magic 8-ball powered by Lego Mindstorms, Cuban sent us the pantscam (which is exactly what it sounds like) and _martini_ noted an online thermostat where you can twiddle the temperature at some guys house. Its only a matter of time before technology fights back: NMerriam sent us the truth about what computers think of us in this weeks Onion. But let us not forget that science has given us many wonderful things, like for example, lunatik17 pointed us at a bit about shooting your lawn with lasers instead of mowing. However, science has also given us gmr2048's story about testicular implants for animals so I guess we're kinda even so far. I suspect the only way to defend ourselves from technology is to understand it, and who better to teach topics like ISDN then sent a great way to have celebreties like Alicia Silverstone. Or Mr. Rogers teaching the RS232 pinout, Tonya Harding explaining a Cisco 700, and best of all, Darva Conger on the configure register of Cisco routers (thanks Ex Machina who got it from Memepool) Ever want to be a female olympic marathon champ? Jaster this years winner believes hornet stomach juice is the secret, so get started! Of course, to much of that stuff could wind you up on sent us the the next Darwin Awards (from Gambit Thirty-Two) Ant sent us a pair of stories about poop! (what does this guy do with his time?) What happens when your space toilet doesn't flush? All I know is I hope that I have some custom printed toilet paper to keep things under control. Finally, many people noted that you should call 1-800-888-3999, and select option 7. No, really.

ModernViking writes "Malin Space Science Systems has just released the second set of narrow-angle images from the Mars Observer Camera (MOC) on board the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. This brings the total image count available online to ~57,500 images (surpassing the ~55,000 images taken by the Viking Orbiters during the mid-70's)."

Barbarian writes "The Jet Propulsion Lab has released 20000 new unprocessed Mars image to the public (both processed and unprocessed images may be found at the link). You can also read the press release. The importance of this is that previously images were not released in this quantity or without pre-processing and captioning. Stories also available online: MSNBC, Associated Press. "

eroberts00 writes: "There is now a Web gallery that has 25,000 images from the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera. Some of the images are available by date taken and some available via image maps that let you view by location. " One word: wallpaper.