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Orbiter Successfully Enters Orbit
dylanduck writes "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has slipped safely into orbit - unlike two of the last four orbiters NASA sent to Mars. Remember Mars Climate Orbiter and the mix up between metric and English units? MRO is going to send back 34 trillion bytes of data, more than all the previous missions put together." From the article: "The spacecraft will use a suite of six instruments, including the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet. This will image objects as small as 1-metre wide and should be able to snap pictures of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. The instruments will track the planet's weather, geology and mineralogy, and even probe about a kilometre beneath its surface to hunt for water."
NPR has an area on their website covering not only this orbiter but past probes as well.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor
I watched the special about this on the discovery channel. Even though europe's orbiter images below the surface this one does it with more detail. This is basically being used to make more detailed full planet maps of the surface. Can't wait to see the first pictures from it.
I just read about this two hours ago. Apparently, the orbit insertion was a critical moment in the mission, as two of the last four orbiters NASA sent to Mars (mentioned in summary) did not survive the final approach. Mars Observer spacecraft fell silent on approach in 1993, probably because of a leak caused when its propulsion system was pressurised. And the Mars Climate Orbiter probably broke up in the planet's atmosphere in 1999 due to a mix up between metric and Imperial units (also mentioned in summary).
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When someone asked why this satellite couldn't be destroyed as the other two alien satellites that were sent by the blue planet inhabitants, K'Breel ordered the traitor's immediate execution. This was the first case of someone being executed for stripping the word "evil" from the phrase "evil blue planet", according to the new law.
(My apologies to TripMaster Monkey)
"34 trillion bytes of data" who on earth (or mars) wrote this? Dont we have mega/giga/tera any more?
For christ sake this is slashdot!
200GB/2TB $7.95 Coupon: SAVE90DOLLAR
If it can spot Spirit and Opportunity, maybe it can find out what happned to Beagle 2?
Why is the new camera with a resolution of 1 metre better than the current camera on Mars Global Surveyor, which is able to deliver some images with a resolution of 50 cm? See here for example pictures with this resolution.
Man, that's a lot of data to be sending back. I just hope those funny little Green Men aren't going to be using up all the space bandwidth looking at porn from Uranus.
EpiAdv - if you like Pokey the Penguin, try this comic!
Pounds, miles, hogsheads etc are not "English" units. Please call them by their correct name "Imperial Units". This is not a joke name, it is what I was taught to call them when I was a child.
I went to an English "Public School" and am now over 40. I only know my weight in kilogrammes. We went metric a long time ago!
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen of the press, we have successfully received 34 trillion bytes of data from our orbiting probe around Mars. Thanks to the support of top compression and encoding experts from the Join Picture Experts Group, we think we've found a pair of breasts near the polar ice cap. This, of course, is not only a strong indication of life on Mars, but states that the alien adult entertainment industry is very popular."
Task Mangler
Well, shoot - I guess you can't hit Mars EVERY time you shoot something at it ... still, an 80% strike rate is pretty good for wartime.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Good job, leaving the troll in the submission.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
This certainly must be the bottom story of the day, just like "Fireplace Was Source of Blaze"--headline, Mobile (Ala.) Register, March 6.
"Me fail English? That's unpossible." - Ralph
it would be cool if they added the 1m data to google maps.
Orbiter enters orbit.
... marinated ... okay, the joke's falling apart now.
In other news Voyager has gone on a voyage, Mariner has
Xbox reviews.. We think they're funny.
and even probe about a kilometre beneath its surface to hunt for water
This was the fallback mission in case it deorbited by mistake.
Of course is slipped into orbit; it's an orbiter, and that's what orbiters do best!
Can someone with some knowledge of orbital cameras tell me why the resolution is only ~1 meter?
I remember reading a Pop. Sci. article back in 1980 or so that showed declassified spy satellite images of someone in Central Park NY holding a book and you could read the title (approx. 1 inch high lettering). Is it not useful to have that much detail or what?
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
Ahah, "objects as small as 1-metre wide" so all it takes to fake Opportunity and Spirit is one pixel each.
Why do Americans like to call Imperial units "English units"? It's like they're trying to pass the buck or something. Come on guys, the English stopped using Imperial units a long time ago. Own up to your own antiquated ways and call them "American units". After all, you're the only ones in the world using them now anyway.
If it did not successfully they could not call it an orbiter now, could they? They'd call it a meteor - or "mass of molten junk". :D
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Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
... nobody can hear you illegally download "Ween" albums.
EpiAdv - if you like Pokey the Penguin, try this comic!
I've really enjoyed the press coverage, but the funniest parts are the gentle adjectives used to describe the orbit insertion burn. "Slipping" is new; I've also seen "eased" and "braked." MOI changed the speed of the spacecraft by a tad over 1 km/sec, or 2238 mph for users of the system-formerly-known-as-English. It turned out to take about 1641 seconds to do so, 33 seconds longer than expected. That peaked out at about 0.08G, not bone-crushing but not exactly a lullaby.
This login name for sale.
How long before google creates "Google Mars"?
____ plex
Great! Here's BitTorrent's chance to prove that it's designed to speed up downloads and not just to trade movies! Only problem is the lack of peers, as Spirit and Opportunity's ISP is running packet filtering. (Clearly, this story should have been filed under the heading "Your Rights Online.")
I, for one, enjoy the relative safety and comfort of my fine tree. I am at a sufficient altitude to avoid the dangers that you "land-lubbers" deal with everyday. I'm shaded from... well, some of the harmful UV rays that you terra-firma-loving peeps drive your cars around on that spew out ozone-depleting compounds. I have fresh air to breathe, and best of all, those SEC officials will never find me out here!
Of course there are some downsides
And you guys complain about the slow 300 baud acoustic-coupled modems back in th.... WHAT THE?!?!
HOLY HELL, there's a goddamn hunter aiming at my carrier pige *BOOM*
NO CARRIER
The title's a little redundant, no? What would the title of this entry have been if it had failed?
"Non-Orbiter Fails to Enter Orbit"
"Parabolic Object Fails to Enter Orbit"
"Orbiter Successful" would have been sufficient, no?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4542174. stm
OoO
Please do not publish outside of
From the aritcle:
Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, which will photograph Mars in unprecedented detail once it reaches the planet next year, could confirm the tentative identification.
"The spacecraft will use a suite of six instruments, including the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet."
But not the most powerful ever put into an orbit.
I'll accept that Hubble class units are more powerful. But I wonder how this camera compares to the ones the U.S. gov is spying on us with?
D'ya reckon that's why they call it "obiter"!?
I managed to achieve 4 and a 5, and now a 0! Yay! So what deems me a "troll" anyway, how is it any different from any of the other jokes I've cracked that got me between 2 and 5?
EpiAdv - if you like Pokey the Penguin, try this comic!
From Newscientistspace:
"It will then begin a two-year science phase, during which it will collect more data than all of the previous Mars missions combined - 34 trillion bytes of data or about as much as contained by a video store."
Video store as a standard unit of measure. Move over Library of Congress!
Oh You POS
"unlike two of the last four orbiters NASA sent to Mars"
Another way of saying it would be "just like two of the last four orbiters NASA sent to Mars".
Maybe it a Microsoft product?
Keyhole Mars http://www.keyhole.com/keyhole.php
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
See the story in the Onion.
There's a difference in some cases. For instance, the English pint, as used by Americans, is significantly smaller than the Imperial pint, as used by the English. To be fair, if you had to drink their beer, would YOU want a larger glass?
And then there are at least three different definitions of the mile to contend with...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
The funny thing is, this gave me the same impression as reading the old "TCP/IP stack released for TRS-80". You know, nothing practical, just somebody messing around with their old hardware.
-Uberhund
Nothing to see on Mars? Get real, it's like going to the Amazon rain forest and coming back saying: "There's nothng but trees and water, and oh yea a few animals".
How about the two largest peaks known, then there is the Hellas Basin, and lets not forget the deepest gorge known.
It'd be quite amazing to see some of the pictures from Mars.
PS: It was the first thing I suggested to Google about "Google Earth" - Why not a Google Mars, Google Saturn, Google Jupiter, etc?
When a bloody Yank mission fails we must crow joyously forever, but as soon as somebody mentions a Brit failure we hastily attempt to change the subject by bringing up the failed American missions again.
It makes me immensely happy to be neither yank nor pom.
You're just jealous because I got FP and you didn't.
in that case?
"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has slipped safely into orbit - unlike two of the last four orbiters NASA sent to Mars. Remember Mars Climate Orbiter and the mix up between metric and English units?
Don't you hate it when you make a mistake and even your friends never let you live it down? I mean, isn't it galling to do something right and all people want to talk about is the one you screwed up years ago?
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
- Iron Successfully Irons
- Light Successfully Emits Light
- Runner Successfully Runs
Sheesh."Wow, you're like some kind of superhero able to ward off happiness and success at every turn."
-- Ryan Stiles
If it can spot Spirit and Opportunity, maybe it can also spot Sojourner. It would be cool to see if Sojourner made it back to Sagan Memorial Station and circled it.
I guess it was a good idea they named it "Orbiter" instead of "Crasher". I hope they can keep this level of quality up, NASA has been doing some great science lately.
Engineers learning to design bridges still see video of the Tacoma Narrows bridge failure. Good examples, lessons learned and all that.
Plus don't underestimate the power of americans wanting to bash europeans over their mistakes and europeans who aren't familiar with space science wanting to bash americans over their antiquated measurement systems.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
As a UK Maths teacher I can tell you that while cars and speeds are still measured in Imperial units, children are taught, and expect, almost everything in metric units.
Interestingly, it is still part of the National Curriculum to teach Imperial units and the conversions between Imperial and metric, but the only ones that are memorable to the majority are; pints (as sold in pubs, and therefore cool), and miles (but not yards, feet or inches).
Most kids find the idea of 'feet' bizarre, in the same way as you probably did when you first heard horses height being measured in 'hands'. The fact that their feet and hands (and mine, come to that) bear little relation to the defined Imperial measure just adds to the absurdity.
It should also be noted that while money went metric some time ago, shops were only forced to go metric in the last few years (and are still allowed to use Imperial measures if they display the metric as well). There is no suggestion that roads and speeds will be measured using anything but miles and mph for the foreseeable future.
What few remember is the true cause of the loss of the MCO, a low budget leading to insufficient analysis of the trajectory.
GoogleMars exists already: see http://www.google.com/mars/
3 feet in a yard
22 yards in a chain
8 chains in a furlong
10 furlongs in a mile
or 63360 inches in a mile
1,000 millimetres in a metre
1,000 metres in a kilometre
Which sounds more consistent? - assuming I got the first section right anyway...
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.