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JPL releases 20000 Mars Images

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. "

21 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Martian colinization by ch-chuck · · Score: 2

    These photo's should prove invaluable in the coming centuries toward the planning and inevitable colinizing of Mars - BION some day Mars will be a very familier place, with regular flights taking people there to work and study for extended periods. Venus is out as way too inhospitable, but there should be ways to find Martian resources such as water, energy, building materials, etc to bootstrap a small industrial civilization capable of building hydroponic greenhouses, farms of alge, fish, plants, etc. It's inevitable.

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    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  2. Re:Data available from NASA by The+Dev · · Score: 2

    Perhaps you meant te Planetary Image Atlas. It has raw and processed images from many planetary missions. They have some neat utils to search and find the data you want too.

  3. who do I mail... by radja · · Score: 2

    Who do I mail that I saw a martian? It wasn't green..

    //rdj

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    No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
    --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
  4. Re:Marvin the Martian? by radja · · Score: 2

    pic #19836, left of the big rock in the background. Marvin and Duck Dodgers having a picnic. and I think I can just see a little bit of Jimmy Hoffa behind the right rock.

    //rdj

    --

    No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
    --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
  5. You don't know how good you've got it... by wowbagger · · Score: 2

    &ltVOICE TYPE="old.fart"&gt

    Kids today, you don't know how good you've got it. When I was a whippersnapper, I was lucky, because my oldest brother worked for JPL, and I got all sorts of free pictures from Voyager (the good space probe, not the lame space show), Viking, Pioneer, and Mariner. I was special.

    Now anyone can download the pics from the 'Net, print them off on their 600dpi color printer, and have them.

    &lt/VOICE&gt

    Seriously: be thankful you can download these with a mouseclick. It wasn't that long ago that you'd've been lucky to get any look at these...

  6. Re:Finally... by LocalYokel · · Score: 2

    I took the time to write a ROT13 converter for the Windows Scripting Host (Win98/2000 - NT4 with Option Pack) myself. Visit my crappy Angelfire page:
    http://www.angelfire.com/boybands/98fe breze/

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    E2 IN2 IE?

  7. Martian Chronicles by zpengo · · Score: 2
    I just watched the Martian Chronicles, starring Rock Hudson, on the Sci-Fi channel.

    It's amazing how terrifically inaccurate it was! I love old science fiction :o)

    (The astronauts' bellbottoms didn't help things either).

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    Got Rhinos?
  8. Re:Martian Face =b by waldeaux · · Score: 2
    The last time I was at JPL, there was a guy outside (well, at the corner of Foothill and Oak Grove) handing out a 10-page (or thereabouts) write up of why the "new" pictures of the Face on Mars were faked by JPL to cover up for the "old" picture of the Face on Mars.

    He went on and on about phase angles, etc., claiming that NASA deliberately avoided taking any picture under the exact same circumstances (but managing to avoid talking about the number of dust storms that would've taken place in the interim) so as to prevent people from really seeing what was there.

    It was especially clear to me that even if there WERE new pictures at exactly the same phase, etc. it wouldn't satisfy any of the believers.

    I wonder though if we can get stats on which images are requested the most. I'll bet that the Face on Mars location is ranked up there with Olympus Mons, and Valles Marineris

  9. Hey, Buddy, drop those images right over there by Anomalous+Canard · · Score: 2

    Good, now we can keep that Blue Sky Mars kook^H^H^H^Hguy busy reprocessing all of the images to show how Mars is the Solar System's best vacation spot.

    Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected

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    Anomalous: deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
    Canard: a false or unfounded repor
  10. Cool by LaNMaN2000 · · Score: 2

    I wonder whether their site will receive the attention that it did when they first collected the images. Do you realize that they could almost fund an entire space mission if they sold advertising on the JPL page where info on Mars missions is offered? Last time, they had over 90,000,000 hits in just over one week!

    Oh, wait, the government only gets money from private industry from taxes and they do not even do a good job at collecting those!

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    ByteMyCode.com: A Web 2.0 code sharing community.
  11. What I would rather see by the_other_one · · Score: 2

    /. is not posting the stories that I woul like to see today. I would prefer to have seen:

    JPL Goes After Usenet Posters

    Penthouse releases 20000 images

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    134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
  12. Marvin the Martian? by mizhi · · Score: 2

    So, does this mean that we might get the opportunity to see if Warner Brothers was lying to us about Marvin the Martian? Perhaps we'll get a glimpse of Duck Dodgers too. =)

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    Humorless sig goes here.
  13. PDS image format by Barbarian · · Score: 3

    The images can be viewed in NASA PDS format...

    Viewers and tools are here:

    http://www-pdsimage.jpl.nasa.gov/PDS/

    By the way, when you go to that page linked in the /. story (once it's not /.'ed...), there's three main choices for the images...the one on the right is the new stuff that was released.

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  14. Re:Martian Face =b by orpheus · · Score: 3

    You damn Earthling internet pirates!

    The Cydonian Face is a copyrighted work of artistic expression protected by the DMCA. If tens of millions of miles of distance isn't access control, I don't know what is! Pirate websites like this which distribute images created by NASA hardware hackers with 'homemade' imagers and transmitters are taking food out of the mouths of starving artists like Lars "It even rhymes with Mars, how dumb can these humans be" Ulrich of Metallica -- not to mention the management and staff of the MPAA (Martian Protected Art Association) and RIAA (Rich Influential Alien Agents)

    Use licenses are available under the terms of the JPL (Jammed Pubic License) for noncommercial private use only. Retransmission or distribution of these images and videos, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of Martian League Baseball, is expressly prohibited.
    _____________

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    If you can go to bed, knowing you did a valuable thing today, you're very lucky. If you can't... it's not bedtime

  15. Re:Cydonia? by orac2 · · Score: 3
    The Mars Global Surveyor was sent specially to photograph the area as JPL got tired of all the constant "Face On Mars" stuff - these MGS pictures were released some time ago.

    As was suspected by most scientists, the face is just a photographic artifact, due to lighting conditions, low resolution and extensive image processing of the original Viking picture, similar in nature to the famous, but non-existant "Martian Canals".

    It's a pity De Palma didn't seem to bother to read this before creating lost oppurtunity that was "Mission to Mars"...

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    "Just once, I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." -- The Brigadier, Dr. Who
  16. Martian Face =b by SirStanley · · Score: 3

    Now the big question. Did the little Poor martians that have had their Monuments Photographed Realize that its better to tear it down and let Earthlings think Mars is Uninhabited so that Earthlings don't flock to Mars like the Locusts they are and Try to Make Contact. They Obviously don't like Earthlings so Im thinking we aren't gonna see the face again, and if they did like us.... the anal probes would stop.. hmmm... need more Preperation H..

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    --------========+++Dont Feed The Lab Techs+++========--------
  17. This should happen every day. by mkoeller · · Score: 3

    Every time I see these great announcements that the NASA again released pictures I think that this should be a normal thing. Wouldn't you say that the NASA's work is supposed to be for all the humans, or, at least, for all U.S. citizens (since they finance it)? If there is a big mass of interested people looking at this then they migth even find something new and exciting (life on mars?) that would have slipped through otherwise. Open Source for Space Exploration!

    --
    "It may be your sole purpose in life to serve as a warning to others."
  18. What no Flash intro? by acidmaple · · Score: 3

    What no Flash intro? No thumping, booty-shaking techno as we fly through the majestic canyons of Mars in full screen (but resizeable) glory? Now, I'm in awe of the amazing photograghs that JPL has posted in a suprisingly open-minded mood. But come on! This is the era of high bandwidth, graphically pleasing web-designs (emphasis on the design part). Now, I realize that they probably don't have the time, money, bandwidth ect. to make something that will please me, an ultra-jaded-slack-jawed-flash-bang-junkie. However, throw me a bone! Give me an interesting homepage at least.

    I'm sorry. I really am... I don't mean to pick on JPL. They mean well. It's just so damn frustrating. These georgeous images that have been given to us by amazing technology are framed by a completely lack-luster page that detracts from them so much that it's almost painfull. I just wanted so much more. To be a geek and an artist, sigh...

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    Capitalism Served Fresh Daily
  19. MSSS, NOT JPL by The+Dev · · Score: 5
    Actually it was Malin Space Science Systems(MSSS), and not JPL that released the images. This is significant because MSSS has been holding the data from everyone (including NASA/JPL) for a year before releasing it. It is great to see MSSS take a more open and timely approach to mars data.


    It is sad however that a private contractor like MSSS could control the release of this data in the first place. All scientific data from planetary missions should be immediately released on the Internet.

  20. In related news, by jesser · · Score: 5
    In related news, NASA has announced a $10,000 prize for the first discovery of evidence of alien life within the images. Distributed.net's Jeff Lawson said he plans to participate in the project, code-named "redplanet colonyfind five". $1000 of the prize money will go to the winner, and $1000 will go to the winner's team (or to his cow if he doesn't have a team). $6000 to a non-profit organization, which will be decided by vote, but is likely to be Microsoft due to a confusing but popular abbreviation of the Mars Society's name.

    Distributed.net will use the remaining $2000 to pay for efforts toward its next project, a non-commercial system that will compete with geek news site Slashdot for control of a dangerous weapon that Slashdot owner Rob Malda is rumored to not only have invented and built, but have tested repeatedly on friendly webmasters. World Wide Web leaders have previously met to decide whether it is better for one group to entirely control the weapon or for there to be a balance of power between two or possibly more groups, but no conclusion was agreed upon. The United States, where both Slashdot and distributed.net are located, has not yet signed treaties banning all tests of the weapon.

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    The shareholder is always right.
  21. Data available from NASA by waldeaux · · Score: 5
    Actually, quite a lot of data is available from NASA. There's the Astronomical Data Center which has several thousand catalogs of objects obtainable over the WWW or on CD-ROM at a very reasonable price (I paid $5, it might be a little higher now).

    Also, if one is a Guest user of NASA facilities, one only has "rights" to the data for six months, after which it is available (unprocessed) to anyone who asks for it. Archives for different missions are available at different NASA sites.