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A First Look At Meridiani Planum
loconet writes "After Opportunity 's successful landing on mars , NASA has recieved the first images showing the landing site revealing a surreal, dark landscape unlike any ever seen before on Mars. The terrain is darker than at any previous Mars landing site and has the first accessible bedrock outcropping ever seen on Mars. The outcropping immediately became a candidate target for the rover to visit and examine up close."
Hopefully there will be fewer Mars-rats chewing on the cables this time. It would be a shame if they did to Opportunity what they're doing to Spirit!
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
Too bad it doesent have big lights to light up the place for an alien party :)
All I am waiting for are these guys to find "machinery" there too. :D
Who knows what the pixelated'n'smoothed zooms will bring.
Source
It's fantastic to see that both Rover's have now landed successfully on Mars (with Spirit to become operational again soon :) ).
This, that Colin Pillinger is discussing sending more Beagle II probes up to search for signs of life, and that President Bush has announced man will set foot on Mars within my lifetime, can only be considered good news :)
youd know then?
No dude, aliens have much cooler things to do then lurking over silly little cars. Like, getting drunk off Listerine. Aliens LOVE Listerine.
Left 4 Dead Gaming Group - http://www.l4dgg.com
This statement wins points for profoundness. Unlike any ever seen on Mars? I thought that was the idea of the mission, to see what's actually up there!
Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!
revealing a surreal, dark landscape unlike any ever seen before on Mars
Or perhaps it landed right on top ot Beagle II, and that they see is the charred scattered remains of the ESA probe.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I love the analogy of the landing being a "300-million-mile hole in one."
Taken from spaceflightnow.com: As suspected overnight when the first images arrived on Earth, the rover has landed inside "a 20-meter diameter" crater, Squyres reports. The crater is estimated to be "a couple of meters deep."
A high-res color picture can be found here
What are the rules for mirroring the rover images on your website - can this be done legally? I know the images are credited to NASA / JPL.
Space flight now has a color photo of the area which has a red tint to it and a decent article about how the surface looks like talcum powder.
Very interesting stuff. I think we should launch another 6 or 10 of these things all over mars after fixing the problem spirit has.
The world is neither black nor white nor good nor evil, only many shades of CowboyNeal.
Could the outcrop be part of a craters rim. The pictures seem to show that Opportunity is in some kind of shallow depression?
siggy played guitar
Just some thoughts.
Ben
cheers, ben
Never miss a good chance to shut up -- Will Rogers
"Opportunity has touched down in a bizarre, alien landscape,"
you mean Mars isn't like Earth?
He was quoted as saying, "Now get your ass to Mars!"
What's very interesting about the Opportunity landing is that they managed to come down in the middle of a 20-meter diameter crater on the Martian surface. This means that they can study sub-surface details that would normally be beyond the reach of the rover's instruments. Also, the crater isn't very steep, meaning that they should have no problem driving out of it and into the next crater over.
Meridiani Planum is certainly one of the more interesting parts of Mars we've yet seen. It will be interesting to get a better understanding of what's causing all that interesting surface topography as well as exploring the composition of the surface.
I don't seeing any limp, melting watches.
P.S. Arizona You're now considered "surreal"
Letter To Iran
IIRC 'planum' is Latin for 'plain', which Meridiani Planum certainly looks to be from those pictures. Wouldn't it have been more worthwhile to drop this rover near some mountains, or like Spirit, in a crater? Seems like there would be more geologically important sites to investigate in those types of terrain. Also, shouldn't the heat shield make a crater of its own? After it seperated it just slammed into Mars without any kind of parachute. Is it close enough to reach and would it be worth investigated the hole it's impact created?
http://www.aaplblog.com/ - News about Apple Inc.
we landed there first why didnt the robot come with an american flag planting deally? It could have sent back an image of the flag and been like "One small step for man, one giant leap for robots"
Here is a link to most of the raw pictures beamed back. It's alot of the same thing, but if you just can't get enough of Mars.
. html
u nity.html
Spirit: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit
Opportunity: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opport
There are currently 132 Raw Images from Opportunity. Spirit has beamed back 1,855 Images.
Enjoy.
its considerably darker and smoother than the usual dusty red rust we're used to seeing and what spirit sent pictures back of. Take a look at the smoothness of it and the peculiar channels and grooves that have been carved into it.
On mars at least, we've never seen anything like it.
-
Actually, it is darker because the room in the studio's light bulb burned out.
dude.. the aliens have burrowed underground... everyone knows this. quit spreading rumors
Maestro is a public version of the science operations tool for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover mission.
Look at the pictures like the gurus do.
Runs on java and crunches my machine... but man, does it give you that "I-am-a-NASA-engineer" feeling.
If you don't want to install that beast, you can feast your eyes on the Raw Image Gallery
AC
Posting true AC so not to Karma Whore.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/005 /2P126813974EDN0200P2213L6M1.JPG
OMG RUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNN1!!!1!!11111oneoneoneone
[blue] - The Ministry of Information approved this message...
Point green types who are anti-space at this. After all, it's not like money spent on space was shoveled into rockets and fired to Mars. (No comment on the proposed manned mission.) Think of all the work on light-weight instruments that perform under hostile conditions--Turn them around and monitor the environment on Earth. We'd better learn how other planets work, because this one didn't come with a man page!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
We could go there ourselves. Fortunately Bush had the insight to realize this and give NASA a vision!
Yes, a series of remote-controlled trains.
I'm not exactly happy with how this turned out... but be kind, it's my first time ever using the QTVR tools. :)
Here.
It's on .mac, so it will probably be overwhelmed soon enough. :( Enjoy.
Not really. You want to land something on the surface so you can examine the rocks, soil, atmosphere, etc. up close. However, you don't want to send humans because sending humans would make the mission far more expensive (humans would need a lot more food, oxygen, and energy than a rover, and also the humans would have to be brought back to Earth). With these requirements, you're pretty much left with landing an unmanned vehicle on the surface. By the way, NASA has been doing an excellent job with a very small (by space exploration standards) budget. These Mars rover missions are among the most efficient missions NASA has ever had.
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I want to be watching when the tech turns on the high-pitched squeal sound right when the rover gets close to an outcropping that looks strangely like a large monolith.
RFC2119
by Gil Scott-Heron
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey's on the moon)
I can't pay no doctor bill.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still.
(while Whitey's on the moon)
The man jus' upped my rent las' night.
('cause Whitey's on the moon)
No hot water, no toilets, no lights.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
I wonder why he's uppi' me?
('cause Whitey's on the moon?)
I wuz already payin' 'im fifty a week.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Taxes takin' my whole damn check,
Junkies makin' me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin' up,
An' as if all that shit wuzn't enough:
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face an' arm began to swell.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Was all that money I made las' year
(for Whitey on the moon?)
How come there ain't no money here?
(Hmm! Whitey's on the moon)
Y'know I jus' 'bout had my fill
(of Whitey on the moon)
I think I'll sen' these doctor bills,
Airmail special
(to Whitey on the moon)
http://www.gilscottheron.com/lywhitey.html
[[ itunes music store has it! ]]
What a let down. I'm sure the scientists are overjoyed at exploring another dead rock, but us lay folk are disappointed that this planet is just a rust colored rock.
Hopefully in my lifetime a mission to Europa will at least yield a liquid ocean
I would think that, given that the landing site was selected for its hematite content, and given the extreme smoothness of the landscape (indicative of erosion of some sort, possibly water-related), this is the best chance yet we've had to discover evidence of former large quantities of water on Mars. Let's all keep our fingers crossed -- imagine what that'd mean for our understanding of the universe, and the chances of the NASA budget going up!
;-)
Not to mention, of course, our chances of getting free shrimp.
How To Get Humans To Mars
Now where are the vast cottonfields in downtown L.A.?
No no no, This is obviously the dark matter we've been hearing about for years.
WTF? why is it all greyscale?
Why do they only have the left pan cam images - the right camera should be taking pictures as well? And I find it funny that they don't try and send some stereoscopic color images.
But when are we going to see the Mars landscape in color? And that doctored photo on the pictures link doesn't count. I'm walking about a real color photo.
That's the spic influence, they gave up the field. But in their heads, they still dream of cotton.
There are no spics on Mars, therefore dark aliens must have cotton fields.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
why return the humans...
A let of people would gladly take a one-way trip to mars....
and.... if you give them means to survive a couple of years, a solution to bring them home might pop up.
Warning: This sig contains a small bug. ==> *
typo...sorry:
a LOT of people that is..
Warning: This sig contains a small bug. ==> *
Venus is an interesting planet. The trick is how to design something that will survive for more than a half-hour on the planet's surface. NASA has already done extensive radar mapping of the planet's surface from spacecraft in orbit around Venus.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Bush is not funding NASA enough to get men to Mars. The net result of Bush's announcement will likely be to take money from basic science programs like this to fund programs that won't result in much of anything. We've already seen that Hubble will come down a year early because of Bush's Mars program, yet he wants to spend 12 billion doing what the experts say will cause at least twenty times that.
The cake is a pie
Because some of these are in the "build phase". Like Mercury Messenger which will spend time around venus before moving on.
Messenger's Site
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If the flash memory cannot be recovered - and it will take quite a while to figure that out - the team must develop new procedures to operate the entire mission with the RAM memory.
/. - you have no Flash memory but oodles of RAM. You have to go to sleep when the sun goes down. How do you reprogramme Spirit to deliver the objectives in these, new circumstances?
Okay
I ask out of curiosity and humility - I have NO idea!!
Backward%20compatibility%20is%20over-rated
Comment removed based on user account deletion
They would need to survive for more than a couple of years. Even if the day they landed someone found a breakthrough that allowed their recovery, it would take more than a couple years to impliment it.
That means we would need to plan on sending enough supplies that they could survive for many years even if we can't.
If these are standard astronaughts, I refuse to be a part of sending them on a one way trip where they will starve to death (or other death do to lack of supplies). These people are too smart and too well trained to throw away like that. I don't object to the one way trip, so long as they can keep busy doing real science until their die of nateral causes. There is plenty of science to do on Mars, so supplies are the problem. (Yes it is a high risk deal anyway, but if they die in an accident that is different from deliberatly killing them)
Now if these people were skum that we wanted to get rid of, I wouldn't object to a starvation trip. I'm not aware of anyone on death row (who really commited the crime he is accused of...) who is qualified to do research on Mars, but I'd be willing to send such a person on a one way starvation trip. I'd make sure there was plenty to do before he died, but anything that doesn't need human intervention isn't in range for him to destroy out of vengence.
On the advice of another /. user, I've invented the MAA to fix any Auto problems.
MAA
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
They clearly do a lot of artistic frequency remapping when they present photos of stars/galaxies/nebulae (i.e. convert invisible spectrum into visible one), but I'd really hope they do something more scientific with data from neighbouring Mars.
The Raven
First ever bedrock
Hematite means H2O
Dark terrain for Mars
http://www.aaplblog.com/ - News about Apple Inc.
Beagle II is hanging out with Spirit
See here.
The cake is a pie
Earlier news stories said that the lander spent about 10 minutes bouncing about in its airbags before coming to rest.
:)
So does this suggest that the first point(s) of contact with the surface were outside the crater? (even a long way outside).
It seems like a really lucky shot anyway
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
+3 Infomative!?? WTF??
And already some Asswipe CEO is thinking of doing some outsourcing there. Dark, stupid, live underground...none of that matters to the asswipe.
If they drink Listerine and eat kibbles so much the better for US business interests.
made me laugh my drink out. Hope you're happy now that I've soiled me and my keyboard ;)
Oooh, I know this one! This is where they have to attach a 29-wire mod because they trashed their TSOP.
stupid trolls
here. Obviously some kind of Ballmer tribute going on there...
yeah, I concur. what's up?
ah this article is plastered with the best jokes ever. Thank you guys, this is hilarious ;)
Trying to put 2 and 2 together, it sounds like the file system on the flash storage was corrupted by software. That could prevent the system from properly accessing the drive, prompting an endless cycle of reboots.
Two things about that bothers me.
Why would the OS / driver allow software to corrupt the filesystem?
If the system can function without the flash memory ("cripple mode"), then why couldn't the system properly identify (or at least report) the failure, instead of going into an endless loop of reboots?
Finally, if it were a software problem, shouldn't they be able to play back the exact sequence of commands to a duplicate machine at JPL and reproduce the problem?
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
it looks like it is on the edge of a cliff looking out across the other side.
Unless NASA's funding has been cut, they have enough (actually more than enough) to get us to Mars. It's all a matter of priority.
Read "The case for Mars" to learn just how practical a manned mission to Mars can be - even for the government.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If these are standard astronaughts, ... These people are too smart and too well trained to throw away like that.
:)
Judging by the term you use, these people would be less valuable than astronauts.
Astronaughts: n. Expendable space exploration personnel sent on one-way journeys.
Hey, I've grown to like your misspelling.
Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
but don't let the article put you off.
marsquestonline
There are also other Mars terrain flyovers, and current large pan and zoom pics from Spirit and Opportunity.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
If they are so hot to find water on Mars why don't they send a lander to the polar regions? Seems like all the probes send back the same pictures of rocks...At least opportunity gave us a different view this time.
Since the English probes have confirmed water on Mars it would be nice if we actually had a probe there to sample it...maybe even drop off a few species of lichen to start terraforming.
Bush, however, obviously hasn't, as "The Case for Mars" calls for avoiding any Moon or orbital bases and for going straight to Mars. Bush is calling for a moonbase specifically as a stepping stone for Mars, something "The Case for Mars" argues against.
The cake is a pie
Now if these people were skum that we wanted to get rid of, I wouldn't object to a starvation trip.
I would object! Hell, I don't want some child-raping death row murderer (who admits/100% proven he did it) being remembered for all of history! The word "hero" is thrown out way too often, but Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrein were heroes for the human race. I don't need every 11 year-old for the rest of history remembering the name of Rapy McRape alongside Armstrong, Glenn and Gagarin.
I think I just realized why Bush wants to go to Mars. Someday, Guantanimo Bay is going to fill up, and we're going to need somewhere to send the "enemy combatants." Future generations won't learn about Rapy McRape, they'll learn about Nukey bin Terrorist, Howard Dean, and Bob Smith (who hurt Bush's friends^H^H^H^H^H^Hthe country by trading in his Hummer for a Prius).
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anybody notice the differences between spirit rover 1 landing site and opportunity rover 2 landing site? (high res) anyone care to comment on what the raw images may show? described clockwise from 12 o'clock.
compare the above images with this pathfinder image taken in '97.
spirit image 1:
context
flat, slightly undulating landscape. scattered large rocks. undulations appear to be lighter coloured/different texture.
12 o'clock
flat, slighly undulating granular surface punctuated with small to medium sized rocks scattered evenly. Between the larger rocks smaller fragments appear just beneath the surface causing convex bulging of the surface material. No craters. larger surface features (mountains?) in the distance.
12 o'clock
flat, slighly undulating granular surface punctuated with small to medium sized rocks scattered evenly. Between the larger rocks smaller fragments appear just beneath the surface causing convex bulging of the surface material.
2 o'clock
rocks appear shattered with sharp edges. larger rocks exposed appear untouched by weathering. material on ground has gentle undulations. In some instances the material covers the rocks.
3 o'clock
slight rises in ground material appear from 2 to 7 - facing in the same direction.
5 o'clock
jpl image on rover visible. rocks to immediate left and above appear to be pock marked. In these pock marks appear to be grains of martian surface.
8 o'clock
collections of rocks above and partially hidden in surface. rocks partially hidden show outlines below the surface. compared to 5 there are much less of the larger rocks. looking right to the 6 position just above the largest pock marked rock notice the collection of very small rocks just beneath the surface.
11 o'clock
trio of larger rocks at 12,6 and 9. inside these rocks are smaller rocks. shadows appear from the 5 position. Inside the trio of rocks appear a great many collection of smaller rocks bounded by the other 3. close inspection of the rocks reveal small mounds surrounding them at a short distance.
opportunity image 2:
context:
appears to have landed in a low depression. You can see the a hill on the horizon. The image is taken with the sun at high angle. It is just possible to see what appears to be drag marks against the flat surface. Another image shows the wind swept regular surface devoid of visible small rocks.
12 o'clock
we have what looks like undisturbed/slightly ground with smooth texture. resembles wind blow sand. No inidcation of rock deposits on surface. From this image it is difficult to tell what is original surface. However if we look at this image we see that the surface surrounding image is a fine textured regular surface where the only irregular surface is possibly where spirit has come into context.
2 o'clock
depression of surface that could be drag marks. area shows both smooth surface as described at 12 and scratch marks that expose small darker objects which could be deeper marks in the disturbed surface or small regular sized objects.
Note scratch mark in top left region crossing the previously created marks suggesting it has been made after the other marks.
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
Panormic, with extra space up top.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find out what angle the camera was at, so I had to guess.
It's true! Aliens abducted my sister and forced her to take them to CVS to buy Listerine. They wouldn't take the cheap generic brand stuff though, and they seemed to prefer Original over Mint.
Interestingly, if you look at NASA's budget reports, they have quite a bit allocated to toiletries...could it be a listerine conspiracy?
Dear Mr. or Ms. Coward,
I regretfully inform you that as of the motion passed in closed meeting on July 23, 2002 the Board of Directors of the University of Minnesota has declared a new organizational chart, which places graduate students between trash cans and toilets in priority, and undergraduate students below all three. Thus, we assure you that we will take any and all appropriate measures to ensure that, should you die in a public venue, your carcass will be removed before it begins to rot. However, due to budgetary constraints we cannot take any action prior to death, as studies have shown that not to be cost-effective. Thank you for writing, the University appreciates all of your hard work.
Sincerely,
Robert H. Bruininks
President of the University of Minnesota
Actually I would recommend that you look into joining a sorority instead.
Can anyone explain to me why all the pictures look like they're taking through a fisheye lens? Why couldn't they have used a better camera?
blog & fiction: jd87
CHina has 1 billion + people, a few wont be missed, and besides, new supplies could be sent every 2 years. And who knows, they might have enough tech/resource to actually start building houses out of the sand/stones using machinary sent there. Send 4 people at once, and send 3 large landers too that inflate a large living hab too. With that a small vehical/buggy thats solar or nuke powered, hell, even peddle power would be good for the astronaughts. All they need to do is bring enough plant seeds/material to start a greenhouse as well, take water out of the ground using solar powered techniques. And keep sending new supplies/tools/bigger inflateable hab units/seeds/stuff. Oh the only bad issues are how they will cope if its only 4 guys, do you send 2 couples instead?
:)
So 4 launchers every 2years including new supplies for food/energy/plants and new tools/hab units, building materials/mining tools. And away you go. Start building a little town/base.
Now the trick is to find a cool place that is perhaps in a valley that has denser air/better rad cover and places easy to build caves/holes in for new 'houses' and also a place easy to land new supplies that could be 'driven/carried back' easily back to base, unless a tricker landing sequence can accurately land with in 1 mile of the base, but not on it
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Mybe cause it's night-time in Arizona?
Just reformat it, take another same set of science data and be done with it!
Re send the last commands except for any motor movements, like rock data samples and get on with the mission.
1 million a day for a dead rover because your software people need to develop a new way to talk to flash (more redundant I hope) is just plain wasteful.
And why the hell does it go into this mode where it becomes practically worthless just because it can't access flash?
Big deal, just operate in ram for now till your software guys get a clue about how to write to flash memory in a more redundant way.
I, for one, volunteer to be your Planet-Conquering Overlord.
Seriously, though... I would go in a second. Possible return trip or not.
Yeah, over 30 million arabs free from oppression, defining their own constitution for the first time, and experiencing democracy and free enterprise. Whooh, too bad someone didn't stop that shit. Without the Taliban and Saddam killing those sand niggers, we'll be overrun with college-educated arabs in no time.
I don't think I read a single comment on this story that was at all interesting or helped me appreciate the significance of these photographs anymore than the article.
I read so many stupid jokes I feel like I was raped by a clown.
less letters
Nitpick: "fewer letters", not "less letters".
Usage: Fewer items, less stuff. Fewer letters, less word length (although "less word length" is awkward...)
Disclaimer: Not *meant* as a flame...
A cheerful little bird is sitting here singing.
FYI, that picture is a computer rendering of Mars, "created using Bryce and MOLA topographic data from NASA" (info here). Which is not to take anything away from it, because it's a stunning image, but let's not try to pass it off as a real photographic image.
--
For news, status, updates, scientific info, images, video, and more, check out:
(AXCH) 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers - News, Status, Technical Info, History.
nt
Can anyone explain to me why all the pictures look like they're taking through a fisheye lens? Why couldn't they have used a better camera?
The pancam has a field of view similar to a human being. It is 16.8 deg x 16.8 deg (0.293 x 0.293 radians).
The navcam has a wider field of view for use during driving, and to look at the immediate surroundings. It is 45 deg x 45 deg (0.79 x 0.79 radians).
You are seeing pictures from both of these cameras, because they are using both of these cameras. The navcam gives the appearance of a "fisheye" lens. The Pancam is in fact an extremely sophisticated and detailed digital camera, and it has two eyes to create stereoscopic (3D) images that make you feel like you're on Mars. Wait a few days and you'll see some more of these images. Click the link below to see some of the good ones from Spirit.
P.S. Anybody know how to make a degree symbol in a slashdot post?
--
For news, status, updates, scientific info, images, video, and more, check out:
(AXCH) 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers - News, Status, Technical Info, History.
Q: What did the boy's mother say to Michael Jackson at the beach?
A: Excuse me, but I think you're in my son.
Here's a link to a complete discussion of a crewed mission to Mars: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/mars_cre w.html
I wonder what cpu is used on the rovers..
They use a radiation-hardened RAD6000 32-bit RISC chip made by BAE Systems. See their Press Release here. Bookmark the page in the link below.
--
For news, status, updates, scientific info, images, video, and more, check out:
(AXCH) 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers - News, Status, Technical Info, History.
This is another good source of images, here organized by date. It doesn't have all the raw images, but it has all of the press release images and some extra ones on top of that. Generally images get posted here several hours before they are attached to press releases.
JPL MER2004 Image Archive
--
For news, status, updates, scientific info, images, video, and more, check out:
(AXCH) 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers - News, Status, Technical Info, History.
Perhaps you would be interested to read NASA's page: How Fast and How Much Data the Rovers Can Send Back, from which I quote:
The ~100bps figure may have been tossed around recently during the debugging of Spirit, while in its fault mode, but this is abnormally slow and not used during normal operations.
--
For news, status, updates, scientific info, images, video, and more, check out:
(AXCH) 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers - News, Status, Technical Info, History.
But Bush also calls for taking a lot longer to get there. Either to mars in six years, or in twenty with a stop to the moon - moneywise it kind of evens out, I figure.
I'm also pretty disappointed in a moon base first, a mars base sure made a lot more sense to me than the moon. I'll bet we see private enterprise get men to Mars before the government. All it takes is a few dedicated people with a whole lot of money.
Mars is also a better stepping stone for places we really want to go, like the outer solar system.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
To some degree, yes, there is. It is called the Mars Express Orbiter. It has a novel Stereo Camera that is going to map the planet's surface up to 10m resolution, in color and 3D, meaning that it will construct fly-over views as well. Check out the ESA site. Then there is an unprecedented ground penetrating radar called MARSIS, which will be able to map the surface structure up to a few kilometers. If there are underground structures made by Martians, we will know about them! Check the below URL to see how much scientific stuff is stacked into the Mars Express :)
/ SE MUC75V9ED_0.html
http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express
actualy the only camera with a fish eye lens are the hazard cameras , most of the early pictures are taken with thease cameras and the fish eye effect is to include as much visual info as possible per image.
Do the Math. NASA's annual budget is $15.5 billion, and Bush is asking for an increase of $200,000/year for five years (that way he can say the word billion). That amounts to an increase of 1.3 percent in NASA's annual budget. Big? Big?? What's big about that? Is that even news?
The last professional estimate for a manned Mars mission was $500 billion and that hasn't changed. In the meantime, we've built a space station as the first step to Mars, but Bush is cancelling American participation. Make Sense?
What's changed is that this time Bush can rely on the media not even bothering to ask for a budget estimate, but to crow like stupid children "we're going to Mars!" Yes, we were, once upon a time when the professionals had control over NASA's budget, and California used to have a budget surplus too, until Bush's Enron buddies got their hands on the money.
Bush's rhetorical method, which he uses over and over, is to cover his agenda with an undisprovable assertion about some other grand project. So Bush cancels the Space Shuttle, the Space Station, the Hubble, the budget allocations for every existing space science project, in trade for the gooey phrase, "we're going to Mars in 2030," but meanwhile, NASA's budget decisions are to be made by a newly appointed committee of former Enron executives from Bush's administration. Look it up.
NASA is the next California, where a healthy economy and a billion dollar surplus ended up in the Cayman Islands accounts of the Enron boys, and the new governor is having to ask the people to borrow $15 billion from Wall Street just to fund the current year's budget. Big Mouth, Little Money, Control of NASA's Budget to Texas friends.
When Bush canceled Clinton's funding for hybrid car research, he made a big speech about the future "hydrogen economy" and asked for a small increase in Clinton's existing funding for fuel cell research. Big Mouth, Little Money, Oil Interests Happy.
When Bush wanted to attack Iraq, it was the undisprovable claim they had WMD. Ignore the professionals, fight for your agenda, get the money for your corrupt friends. NASA is just the next target on the pillage list. So celebrate the Mars Rovers and Shuttle while you can, dream about 2030, watch the cancellations, and wait for the bad news, because the funding for science is done, and the money is going with the Enron Boys.
Something I'd love to see from a visual perspective is pictures of the lander module, taken from the lip of the crater if the rover were able to get up and over the lip. Being able to look down on it with the crater in the background would provide the first photo taken from a position HIGHER than the landing site. Most photos of landmarks and feaures usually look better taken from either below the plane or above it, so you can discern depth.
Visceral Psyche Films
Or am i missing something?
Why is it there are no nightsky photos yet?
If I am correct, Opportunity has landed in a thin film of mud. Take a close look at the pictures taken of the immediate foreground in front of the deflated bags. To my mind that looks exactly like the bags have wrinkled up the surface of a thin layer of mud. The original surface has not been touched for ...how long?... yet, it looks just as though it has the surface of mud that has been rained upon with a classic stippled surface. Where the bags have deflated the surface is smooth in places. If this is correct, then NASA have hit the holy grail on first base and have liquid water right under the lander. Again, on the first images of the bare rock nearby, the surface of the rocks looks wet.
I understand that when the first tests for life on Mars were done back in the days of Viking missions, if there had been evidence of water at that site, then there would have been no argument whatever that they had detected life.
Well done NASA! WE, are not alone, there is life on MARS.
If he's looking for a cover up and conspiricy theories, then his time would be more profitably spent looking at the reports from Iraq.
I agree. If I look at the color picture and zoom in on the ground next to the lander, it looks as if the ground is some sort of mud or a paste. I don't believe it is a very fine powder, otherwise the Martian wind would not allow for a clear view that we have seen from the picture. It certainly looks like the ground is muddy, absolutely. Also, look at the deflated airbags: they are dirty and look to have been soaked by the mud to some degree.
PIZZA CRUST! Nasa's probes must be orbiting a slice of red pizza, not the red planet...
By magnifying the pictures, the pixelization causes rectangular artifacts (heh) in the picture that make them look somewhat artificial, i.e., manufactured.
In addition, the site authors seem to have quite an imagination when interpreting ordinary but unusual natural structures as artificial.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
True, space travel is dangerous, but it is far from silly to try and make it safe. Granted, having a "must be able to dock at ISS" requirement may be silly. But, would trying to develop a better heat shield technology be silly? Would carrying some form of ablative epoxy that could replace a missing or damaged tile be silly?
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Anyways... now that you've verified that your cock is working.. you now have to find a female. A female has a body cavity where you can insert your stiff penis. This body cavity is situated exactly where your cock is on your body and is called a 'vagina'. BTW.. DO NOT accept any individuals that claim to be females but have a penis like you do. Insist on that damp cavity!
Now... once you've a found a female willing to accept your stiff penis in her vagina make sure her vagina becomes wet and lubricated. The female will most likely assist you with this and will most likely expect you to explore her vagina with your tongue (sensory organ located within your food-intake cavity). Do as directed. Do NOT gag(!!!). After a while the female will most likely assist you when you insert your penis into her vagina. Start moving your penis in and out of her vagina. You should try not to ejaculate for at least five minutes. This is considered courtesy by the majority of humans.
Since the objective of sliding a stiff penis in and out of a female's vagina is to transfer male genetic material into the female organism your female may desire that you either ejaculate directly into her vagina or refrain from doing so. Most likely she will tell you her preference a fraction of a second before you ejaculate.
If she desired you to ejaculate into her vagina, entertain the possibility of being required to provide for her and her offspring.
If she did not desire you to ejaculate into her vagina, entertain the possibility of being required to provide for her and her offspring and mumble something about it being her fault too.
In either case be also prepared to have contracted a deadly disease. You can also elect to have cover your penis with a rubber protective cover if you find it unacceptable to be required to provide for the female and her offspring or you do not wish to possibly contract a deadly disease. However, some gods and half-gods do not approve of inserting a stiff penis into a female vagina without also ejaculating directly into that vagina. A religious text documents a man's (Onan) refusal to ejaculate into a female ("Leah" his deceased brother's female) he was required by his deity ("Yahweh") to ejaculate into. This individual was severly punished by the deity with death through jolts of high-voltage electricity.
I am wondering how many microscopic organisms might have survived the trip to Mars on the rovers, along with scientist's skin cells, etc. How clean are the clean rooms at JPL? This must have been a big concern during the building process.
Think twice before you speak. It's most likely below freezing most of the time so it would not be mud even if there were water. Second, the water would not stay mixed up with the topsoil for this long. Third, water != life, though it is thought to be one of the prerequisites... just because it's there doesn't mean life is there. Fourth, we saw a similar soil pattern over at the Spirit's landing site. It is probably just a weird characteristic of Martian soil.
How many earth microbes and organisms do you know of which could survive the massive extremes of cold and heat, not to mention radiation, that any earth-borne microorganisms would have encountered over the six-month, several-hundred-million-mile voyage to Mars? This is not to mention, of course, the utter lack of anything for them to eat for six months along the way (even organisms on earth which survive near steam/lava vents on the ocean floor, or deep under the ice, must have food to survive.) So unless you know of an organism native to earth capable of surviving such temperature extremes, and able to feed on radiation and exist in a vacuum, my guess would be that if any microorganisms survived lift off they'd have been long dead before reaching Mars. Then, of course, there's the life-killing Martian extremes of temperature and radiation to consider as well, not to mention the hardship they'd endure during the entry and landing on Mars.
I suppose I could envision some sort of strange stew that could have eaten the spacecraft along the way if it could survive on metal and pastic and survive the temperature and radiation extremes of the journey in a vacuum--but then, even in that case, the space craft (or critical parts of it) would have been eaten prior to landing on Mars--and the landing would never have taken place, would it?...:)
I think we are pretty safe from seeing the "Martian Andromeda Strain" anytime soon on our local newscasts...:) Of course, later on when we get to Terraforming Mars, we'll have to introduce a lot of earth-borne stuff, including microbes, won't we?
I was thinking more along the lines of instrumentation being "polluted" with compounds from earth, such as the mass spectrometer they use, etc. I wasn't suggesting we would introduce fridge mold to the martian topsoil :-)
The comment someone made, about it looking just like Arizona, is what suddenly hit me. It does look like Arizona. This is freaking me out. Look at the "approach" photos; there are windswept craters! We never saw that with the moon photos. This is so strange, in my mind it should not look like Earth but it does.
The Opp probe appears to be resting between some sand dunes, it could be any playa basin or even beach in the world. I half expect the camera to show some scrawny bunch grasses or a bit of dessicated twig next. Then scorpion tracks. Not going to happen of course...but expecting it is a big step.
Say what you like, it starts to freak you out if you let it sink in. We are on Mars! We are fscking there and it is ours to do with as we please. We can send any kind of robot, factory, mining equipment, greenhouses or prebuilt shelter we want to, tons and tons of stuff, have them all come together on their own power and dock, build a whole base station in advance, then send a few couples a la Swiss Family Robinson to just go and live there forever, have babies, study the place, the whole thing. We are there.
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
I'm waiting for some degree of factual information from you. I checked out your site - it's antiquated anti-American rhetoric and nothing else.
Remind me, how many volunteers did your country ante up for Hitlers Waffen SS? was it 700 or 800. Call me back when you've dismounted from your high-horse, you arrogant piece of eurotrash.
Register, login, and write it in your journal.
/.s probably identify with.
Thats the proper [place for rants, personal anecdotes, stories the editors don't want to run, and otherwise OT stuff like the post you just made.
You might be surprised, people might just want to discuss the parking problems at U. of M. (but I doubt it). Increasingly commercialized collegiate sports having a deleterious effect on the academic environment at a Uni is something that most