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Spirit's First Mars Images

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the isn't-that-special dept.

An anonymous reader writes "First panoramic and overhead polar views of Mars, a quarter billion miles away are available. Some spectacular examples and accompanying commentaries are at NASA's Astrobiology Magazine, and JPL."

14 of 406 comments (clear)

  1. Awe Inspiring by linux_user_31337 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No matter how many space missions are made, this stuff still puts me in awe. I know that quite a few NASA guys lurk on /., and all I can say is: good work!

    1. Re:Awe Inspiring by pe1rxq · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Maybe in some ways, like distance and target area size...
      But in other ways its very different, like you can't alter the golfballs course half way over the atlantic but you can adjust the course of a marse probe a bit.

      Jeroen

      --
      Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
  2. Re:Which desktop are they using in this image? by Ianoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    None of them. It's probably an X server with some lightweight window manager they've been using since the 80s.

  3. Congratulations to the team by haggar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In case anyone of the NASA guys is reading /. (I know some are), I'd like to express my congratulations on an excellent job. I really enjoy following each step of the mission.

    --
    Sigged!
  4. Re:how come by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This question comes up frequently with the whole moon landing skeptic/debunk arguments. In addition to Ada_Rules' comment, keep in mind that Mars' atmosphere is quite different from that of the Earth. The differences in atmospheric density, levels of sunlight, and the effects of those things on the refraction of light make for "distorted" images as viewed by eyes trained to see in Earth-perspective.

    Or, in layman's terms, "Objects on Mars may be further away than they appear."

    --
    Rate Naked People (not work-safe)

  5. Re:Problem with images by SlightOverdose · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the average broadband connection is (probably) 1.5mbit/s. I think 24mbps is a lot fast than that.

  6. Re:Take that EU by oaf357 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Shuttle program vs. No shuttle program. Pretty easy to not have any casualities when you don't put anyone in space.

  7. Re:Which desktop are they using in this image? by Ianoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not sure what you mean. It could well be GNOME, but I would have thought an entire desktop environment would be slight overkill for machines that spend their days doing the same thing over and over again. These are work machines, after all, not home desktops. Also NASA is on a budget, and probably doesn't replace machines as frequently as you or I. Newer desktop environments choke on older hardware, but a basic X server with a lightweight window manager will work very well indeed.

  8. Re:boy am I glad! by tsaler · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's surprisingly funny considering some things I've seen from "that crowd" before. For example, an advertisement on NewsMax.com, a banner ad, said "SADDAM'S WEST NILE VIRUS," and I just thought to myself, "This can't be for real. They're not REALLY claiming that the mosquitos are in it with Saddam Hussein, are they?" But they were, and it was sad. So, I suppose if they claimed that Iraq had moved all its WMDs to Mars, the average American would flip out and start cursing about "them damn little green bastards" being terrorists and the like. I don't like it one bit, no sir.

  9. Re:Color Pictures by Atmchicago · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't really see the point of sending people to mars. What can they discover that the robots can't? Sure, they can say "Hey! It looks different and there is less gravity!," but we knew that anyway. It is far simpler to send robots. Sending people requires food, life support, oxygen etc., whereas a robot needs solar panels.

    The price and inconvenience of sending people far outways any reason to send people over there.

    --

    You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.

  10. Re:boy am I glad! by Rostin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I guess it is nice for you that (for whatever reason) you saw your way clear to work hard and go to college. Your ideas about poverty are a little simplistic. Only the "children, accident victims, and elderly" are unable to care for themselves? You'd probably tell someone with clinical depression to just "cheer up," too, because there is no evident reason for their unhappiness.

  11. Re:boy am I glad! by logophage · · Score: 3, Insightful
    with regard to poor slobs and the evilness of social programs: do you dislike social programs like the national highway system? or social programs like public education? or social programs like the national park system? or how about social programs like water distribution and sewage drainage? do you dislike social programs addressing the health and safety of the food we eat? or the efficacy and safety of the medicines we take? what about public funding of the postal service? or of libraries? do you think that publicly funded disaster relief programs are inherently bad? what about government-backed loan guarantees for small businesses? are soocial programs that fund the police or firemen wrong?

    do you not use any of these social programs? and is this what you teach your daughter?

  12. Re:Color Pictures by canadian_right · · Score: 2, Insightful
    "The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program."
    Larry niven

    That is why we should be working towards living on Mars, not just visiting.

    --
    Anarchists never rule
  13. Re:Hey! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Sneering comment like this show no appreciation of the difficulties involved, or the work people put in.

    Mars Express is working just fine, thanks.

    Beagle 2 was built on a shoestring budget, far, far less than NASA had for the (wonderful) rovers.

    ANY lander on Mars has to contend with factors like weather (Beagle 2 apparently came down during a duststorm), undetected obstacles such as large rocks, as well as failures within the lander itself.

    I might remind you that Mars Polar lander also failed completely, as did The Mars Climate mission, and others (including losses on the launch pad, failure to leave Earth orbit, etc).

    NASA has had its share of failures (as have others), as well as successes.