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Spirit's First Mars Images
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."
Hey, that's just Tatooine. Man, what a rip-off.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
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!
I think I see Beagle2! - or what's left of it.....
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
Details on the panoramic camera are available from Cornell. Check out the popup test image links which show the test shots they shot in the lab and at Cape Canaveral. They're pretty spectacular.
You're slashdotting a hundred million dollar mars rover!
$400 million actually and yes that is just spirit.
Which desktop (windows, kde, gnome, mac) is shown in this image?
The leftmost titlebar button resembles MacOS9, but the rightmost buttons don't.
(The image appears washed-out because it's a photo of a canvas.)
here
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Could someone please tell NASA to upload some pictures at 1280X1024, I really need some new wallpaper.
XP's rolling hills are starting to get old... although I could isolate the red channel and tell people it was pictures from Mars, but I digress.
These are the real pictures: First Pictures. It should be noted that these are black and white and not color or false color, as the submitter may lead some to believe, to that magazine's tweaking of the original.
A blog like any other.
We hurl the craft towards the planet millions of miles away on a gigantic explosive rocket, just so the robot can land and take pictures of itself. Sounds like my last vacation.
You can get the full quality version of these images and more here.
Great stuff so far! The landscape seems a lot flatter than where Pathfinder landed.
That is exactly what the driver of the last mission to Mars said when he hung up the rover on a rock and got it stuck.
I would hate to be the person who got the rover stuck on a rock with all those rocket scientists looking at me really steamed...
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
here
MoFscker
>Why not divert the billions of dollars spent on WMD to aid the starving populations instead?<
The Mars mission was to search for Iraq's WMDs that cannot be found on Earth.
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
Those are black and white images. The bluish color results from taking a picture of the big screen at JPL as these images were shown (or doing screen grabs of NASA TV). The first color images should be sometime Sunday night.
I was watching these (on NASA TV) as they came in and it was just amazing. Everyone at JPL was really quiet as they knew the data was about to come in. As earth had already set, this data (~12 minutes) was being relayed by Mars Odyssey. The first couple images were really dark and small. You got the impression most people had no idea what they were, but none the less everyone was cheering that they were getting data and pictures back. They got at least one picture that was taken during landing that they weren't expecting. Then the big detailed pictures of the landing site started coming in and everyone was just in awe. Pretty quickly they combined images into mosaics and panoramic shots. I can't wait until they get their good cameras up and running. The commentator was saying the resolution will be hight enough that the pictures will still look good when blown up to the size of a movie screen.
Here.
I was following the Nasa TV broadcast from Germany, meaning I had to get up at 5am. My girlfriend called me nuts. But I don't regret a single second. The six minutes landing phase was more stunning than any movie could ever be. I smoked chains when the signal disappeared. But now that I see the images I must say "Good work, Nasa!"
;-))))
I am eagerly looking forward to the landing of Opportunity and the rover mission. Still, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for ESAs Beagle2. Chances are we can pick up a signal these days using Mars Express Orbiter!
The landing sequence for the MERs seemed quite complex and I was wondering if they were overdoing it! But I am deeply impressed now. Ever since I was a little boy I was dreaming about a real Rover on Mars and now I get two (hopefully). This is better than xmas! Thank you, Nasa! You rock!
Lispy
All that money and all that time and still got the picture of the backs of heads. Funny how these martians look like NASA geeks. Maybe if we flew in some babes and a couple cases of beer there really would be life on Mars.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The pictures that have been released were taken by Spirit's Nav Cam, and at only 1/4th of the Nav Cam's maximum resolution. Remember, we weren't even expecting images at all yet. We were only able to take these because we only had a relatively small amount of time to transmit data (at 24 megabits per second). Larger images and color images from the Pan Cam will be coming by evening when Spirit's high gain antenna is directly in line with Earth. Then we'll have the bandwidth for the higer resolution (3 times the maximum resoultion of the Nav Cam, 12 times higher resolution than what we've seen so far) color images that the Pan Cam is capable of taking. It will probably take a few days to get an accurate full color panorama of the landing site.
There's loads of images here.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
You are not seeing the curvature of the planet. You are seeing an effect of the wide angle lense that causes the picture to have a fish-eye like distortion.
--- Liberty in our Lifetime
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!
In case anybody wants to know what resolution the cameras will be taking the photos at you can get the whole technical specs for the pan cameras at
http://athena.cornell.edu/pdf/tb_pancam.pdf
It's quite interesting actually. Real News for Nerds!
More specifically, the effects of a lens that is under 50mm that is not being shot parallel to the ground.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
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)
People keep commenting on the black and white quality of these pictures. AFAIK, these are lower resolution black and white photos taken for initial analysis to keep the file sizes low. The nice color pictures we all want to see should be here later today (around 12:00 P.M. PST 3:00 P.M. EST). Overall, i'm impressed that we have once again gotten something on Mars without unit conversion issues or just plain bad luck. Now it could only be topped if our President (or the next one) would announce a manned mission to mars challenge, similar to the one issued by Kennedy to go to the moon in the 60s.
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - Tennyson
According to another article on the same site HERE , the data transfer rate is exceeding their expectations 150% by sending "24 megabits per second" which certainly isn't broadband, but it ain't that bad either.
Paul Lenhart writes words!
Later on, they'll calibrate the camera using the color wheel on the sundial (yep another old technology that works ) and you'll get full color images that are very crisp. The color images will be composite images that are built from 3 separate shots of the same scene looking through different colored lenses.
Had they chosen instead to send a ccd that was wired like a digital camera, the images would have had 1/3rd the resolution they'll get this way.
the average broadband connection is (probably) 1.5mbit/s. I think 24mbps is a lot fast than that.
Shuttle program vs. No shuttle program. Pretty easy to not have any casualities when you don't put anyone in space.
I bet their ping time is shit, though...
Speaking of Cornell, my professor at Cornell was the Rover's principal scientist Steve Squyres (great guy and perhaps the best professor I ever had there, by the way...). He said that at one point they had considered using radiactive power cells. That woulda made the rovers last like 6 years, not up to 6 months. The Viking Landers lived from like 1976 until like 1982. Imagine how far the rover coulda crawled in 6 years! I mean, someone do the math... it woulda been amazing. Oh well, glas-half-full-and-all, 6 months is infinately better than shattering in the atmosphere/rocks...
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit. html
Link
We did get one message back from Beagle. "Probe yum yum... tastes like chicken. Send more probe"
qntm.org
First of all. $800M (for two rovers) is really inexpensive.
Secondly, the science we gain is very important... and people like you, who can't see it, should go join those poor sobs who can't seem to feed themselves, let alone contribute to the rest of society.
I would much rather pay for science (that helps everybody) than to waste my money trying to feed some poor slob who has no concept of how to even feed themselves - much less contribute.
Lastly, each one of us here on this planet were born with exactly the same thing... NOTHING. We make our own world. If there is a problem with the one we currently have, then it is up to ourselves to change it. And before you say anything else, I know... I was born to a very poor household with a drug taking single parent. Once I realized how bad it was, I got out, started working two jobs and paid my own way through a local state college. I've worked my ass off to get to where I am at right now and I am very proud of that fact. I instill every bit of that in my daughter so that she also understands what it takes. You can't just sit by and have pitty on your own situation... you must do something about it.
Science allows us to expand our knowledge and understanding of the universe around us. Which makes our world a better place to live in. Social programs that "HELP" those in need only serve to support the status quo, they don't help it grow or make it any better. I'm not saying we don't need social programs... but rather we should only have social programs for those who can not care for themselves... like children, accident victims, sick and elderly.
Bill
It's my Sig and you can't have it. Mine! All Mine!
Is it just me or does the media have an obsession with pretending there was a race between the US and Europe to land on Mars? The BBC certainly has!
....
"US beats Europe to Mars" was the text they had onscreen at one point. Very annoying. I expected more from them. I really gotta stop doing that
The landscape seems a lot flatter than where Pathfinder landed.
This one was shot in a different studio.
I bet their ping time is shit, though...
Unless you are a Martian.
High-Res Panoramic
As mentioned before, there are a lot more images if you look here
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
...that's South Dakota.
If Opportunity lands and Beagle is still alive, they can play Battlebots!
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.
There is a medium resolution version (1116x328 pixels) viewable here which is not too bad
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
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.
The information in the article is incorrect. 24 Mbit (or 3 MBytes) of data were received in total over a couple of minutes at a speed of 128 kbps (This was for the first pass of the Odyssey orbiter). 128 kbps relates to the transmission speed from the orbiters to the Deep Space Network on Earth. That's not broadband, but it's not bad either, given the distance! The direct link from the rover to Earth will be much slower with around 12 kbps (but longer time periods of communication can be achieved each day compared to passes of the orbiters). However, this will only happen once the high-gain antenna is operable (which will probably be later today) and the Earth is visible from the rover.
First panoramic images from Mars. I'm somehow let down by that. I guess I'd hoped for something more along the lines of:
...instead of just some pictures of some stupid rocks.
"We have failed to uphold Brannigan's Law. However I did make it with a hot alien babe. And in the end, is that not what man has dreamt of since first he looked up at the stars?"
Ah well. Maybe next time.
That green slime had it coming.
do you not use any of these social programs? and is this what you teach your daughter?
By that time, they may already be ahead of us procedurally -- by that, I mean in their approach/attitude. On their very first manned mission, they've left behind a habitable module in orbit. Later missions will have the goal of docking with it (and perhaps adding to it?). i.e. they're already working on a space station, or at least the technology for it.
This signifies the kind of long-term, methodical approach that the US program has really lacked. Yeah, we had our moon shot, but we didn't do it in anywhere near a sustainable way. And the Shuttle has been a long trek down the wrong path. By the time China has caught up technologically, and also in terms of manned-spaceflight experience, they may well have a continuously-occupied outpost on the moon.
It'll be a bit difficult for the US to catch up to *that*. But we'll be able to take heart in the fact that no one can beat us at putting up military satellites.
"Orthodoxy is unconsciousness" - Orwell
All of the individual raw photos (which are clearer and in black & white) are available at:
. html
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit
Enjoy.
Elonka :)
"No color????? Cripes. How much did the damned thing cost and NO COLOR?"
Funny. You have MTV expectations.
Enjoy.
I tried submitting this as a story, but it was rejected.
Hooray.
Bowie J. Poag
Actually, a number of Mars experts have already commented on this. The main explanation is that, though Mars does have all those dust storms, the atmosphere is quite thin compared to ours. It doesn't have the power to pick much up, and the storms are made up of rather fine powder. The effect is more like a slow polishing rather than the sand blasting that you get in Earthly deserts. It really would take billions of years to wear those rocks down to sand by such feeble storms. Come back when Mars is twice as old as it is now, and the rocks will be smaller and smoother. Except, of course, for the ones more recently scattered by impacts that haven't yet happened.
I wonder if there's a NASA page with the numbers on this?
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.