Slashdot Mirror
First Super Close-Up Pictures of Mars
Alien54 writes "The most powerful camera ever to orbit Mars will get its first close look at the Red Planet on Friday. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera flying aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will relay its first low-altitude images to scientists at The University of Arizona beginning September 29. User-friendly web tools will be available to both the science community and the public to view/analyze HiRISE images and to submit observation requests. Processed images will be released soon after acquisition to allow everyone to share in the scientific discovery process. By combining very high resolution and signal-to-noise ratio with a large swath width, it is possible to for images to be collected on scales down to 1 meter."
Aren't the Mars rovers "super close up"?
Now, 1 meter resolution might be twice as good as 2 meter resolution but my dumbass isn't going to know the difference. My point is that those are two very high resolutions so I think the Mars Express gets the credit of being the first to get super close-up pictures. Don't worry, American's will not be out done by Europeans -- there will not be a super resolution images of mars gap! Every American will now be proud to say that their screensaver takes up roughly twice the amount of room as their European counterpart.
In all seriousness though, these images would be very useful for selecting landing sites for more missions and possibly manned missions in the very far future. The MRO and Mars Express seem to have very similar objectives -- studying the composition of Mars, it's weather, atmosphere & geology -- I wonder if they couldn't have been a combined effort for an even greater return. Then again, I'm just glad both of them are fulfilling their goals instead of both burning up on entry due to a conversion of units error.
My work here is dung.
The pictures released so far are from the first tests of the camera - done last MARCH.
New pictures will start coming soon (november?), as the orbit circularization has been completed, but none has been released yet.
As opposed to ? ... The most power camera to orbit Mars since last Wednesday .. for example?
:-)
fantastic headline, "the most powerful camera ever"...
As if millions of /.ers suddenly started hitting refresh every other second.
How long untill they're on google mars?
...I got nothing.
"Google Mars" :)
I'm checking out Cydonia, and it's intensely curious how they don't have any images for the completely zoomed in setting. Also, there seems to be an enormous strip of image removed from the area.
Search for "face" and you'll see what I mean.
I'm not saying there's any sort of conspiracy here, but I'm very suspicious of NASA and the DOD and believe that they are witholding important data regarding (past) life and civilizations on Mars.
Please tell me you are fishing for a funny mod.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I guess you could manage a chuckle at my naivete. Yeah, I'm overstating my credulity in that post. In reality, I don't assume that either NASA or DOD are ever telling the whole truth about anything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_1
-- There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
it should show up as a pixel at least...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
...That we'll finally be able to determine if the hand that belongs to that face on the Martian surface is giving us the finger.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
Neither do I but I think the ALH84001 episode showed that NASA would jump on any evidence of life on mars as justification for a future manned mission. Many of their press releases about the Mars Exploration Rovers have focused on evidence of conditions supportive of life. If there was anything to the Face I would expect NASA to be exploiting, not hiding the evidence.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
The pictures of the camera being used feature a lens hood with coverage on only one side. This confuses me. Surely when the camera is pointing down, as in the illustration, and the satellite is orbiting, the lens hood would need shield light to protect from flares at all angles (like a conventional camera's lens hood). Anyone care to shoot me down and explain?
I can assure you that those pictures are NOT fake! The details are so accurate. How do I know? I used to live not far from there. So, please do not insult my home!
I'm sooooooo aaaannnngry!
NASA will always be under the thumb of the DOD.
2x2=4. Doubling the resolution is 4 times the pixels ^^
But, yes, I am excited about Friday, too.
Hey, we can see your lander from here!
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Is it really "intensely curious", or is it the fact that it's just not that interesting an area? Hasn't it been analyzed to death already? Does it even look like a face if you don't squint your eyes and believe?
Here's a few links about it anyway:U RE_0.html
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/2 2/0634233
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/hoagland/face .html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/ mars_face_010525-1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_on_Mars
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM09F8L
"Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
I encourage you to actually look at the Google Mars map and take a short view around the Cydonian area. Unlike other parts of Mars which are very rough-hewn, you'll find flat areas and plateaus and very angular formations. There are mountains that would be conical except that they have flat sides. There is the face which you mention, and your links to "official" examinations discuss that particular feature. There are actually quite a few interesting formations in that area that only people who haven't looked at the maps would say are "not that interesting".
I'd be the first to acknowledge that the data on this area seems incomplete. That interesting formations do not necessarily mean intelligent creators. However is the lack of interest in this area a result of an uninteresting terrain, or is it the work of something more sinister?
They are not duplicate missions at all!
In fact they are petty much very complementary: if you carefully compare the list of instruments you'll find different instruments or similar instruments that complement each other. E.g.: the Sub-surface Sounding Radar of the European mission can go down to several kilometres under the surface, while the equivalent radar on the US mission can reach only one kilometre but has an higher resolution and sensitivity (BTW they are both provided by ASI, the Italian Space Agency).
The super high resolution images are complementary too, because each mission will take only pictures of a small percentage of the surface at this resolution (Mars Express will map the entire surface "only" at 10 metres/pixel).
And Mars is a whole new world, by the Gods: it can't be completely explored by a single orbiter (or ten). Even two identical missions will almost double the scientific output.
There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
Hint: His tag is "BadAnalogyGuy", you'll get used to him after a while.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
It's amazing that I can look at such detailed photos of Mars, but due to censorship I will never see equally high resolution ones of all of earth.
...we'll finally be able to identify the Transformer who vandalized the Mars Rover?
I bet it was frickin' Starscream, that bitch.
These stories are free but worth money.
I encourage you to actually look at the Google Earth map and take a short view around the Western United States Area. Unlike other parts of Earth which are very wet, you'll find flat areas and plateaus and very angular formations. There are mountains that would be conical except they have had their sides blown off. There's no face, but there are actually quite a few interesting formations in that area.
I was talking about scientific interest as compared to conspiracy-theoretic interest. Of course anything on Mars is interesting, just by virtue of being on Mars. That's not to say that Cydonia is any more interesting than any other area. Sure there are interesting formations there, but that's true just about any place you'd care to point to. The only thing that makes Cydonia stand out are the fact that wishful thinkers and conspiracy theorists have managed to coerce themselves into believing that there is proof of life on Mars there.
All this from a very grainy photograph taken more than 30 years ago. One would think that once we got some better photographs these fantasies would die off, but it didn't happen in 2001 and I guess it won't happen this time either. Instead they roll right on to "The government is obviously hiding the truth"...
Anyway, you're welcome to your belief and your conspiracy theories. I'd just thougt that a few relevant links could be handy.
"Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
This worthless AC has an informative answer to an observant geek who posed a deliciously nerdy question about the camera's operation. TFA is about the camera, slashdot is for nerds, how the hell is it OT?
I could go on, but I am busting to play with my balls and camera!
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Now we only have to wait for Google Mars to be able to browse the extraordinary interesting rock formations on Mars that show rocks and... more rocks!
mars express is better than what we had (just as previous gens were), but the truth is, that we need a far finer resolution for the simple purpose of finding a good landing site. Except for viking, the bulk of the landers have been bouncers (i.e. designed to withstand several meter rocks) or parachutes. Of course, the polar lander (which failed) was designed to land similar to the viking; that is under power. The problem is, that a 1-2 meter boulder can cause an issue. But the next generation lander will be able to be ok with a boulder that is under a meter. All in all, America needs the Mars Express to be able to do safe landings.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Since Mars Express used an earlier launch opportunity shared by the Mars Rovers your suggestion is pointless. Also MRO is collaborating with the Italian Space Agency with the Subsurface Radar experiment. Otherwise NASA collaboration with ESA is on the wane for many reasons.
an ill wind that blows no good
Is mars.google.com going to be updated?
I'm not an astronomy buff, so this might be a stupid question. But why are there so many craters on Mars? Doesn't the atmosphere protect the planet like here on Earth? It appears that there are almost as many craters as on the Moon. I guess the atmosphere is very thin on Mars.
Two links to the same damn place. Great.
Now maybe we can find where Saddam hid his WMDs.
Or here. I agree. The NASA missions are very open about releasing raw data. It is something to be proud of.
an ill wind that blows no good
This would be a good time to take more pictures of Cydonia, glass tubes and other relics of the lost martian civilisation. I believe this is of great scientific and historic interests, since there are what are clearly ancient ruins of vast cities of a lost technologically advanced civilisation there. The face is only on of many buildings there, including pyramids and all sorts of other stuff. I think the possibility of this has been shown to be large by the work of hoagland and others in decoding the mathematical language of the layout of this city complex which utilises various numbers and measures. It would be interesting to find out who build these vast cities and pyramids and if they have a connection with earth.
I heard Mike Malin, founder of the company makes the cameras, identify some likely Beagle sites with the previous orbitor. These were three or four pixels at best. The new camera could increase this to 20 pixels. Both rovers, their platforms and heat sheilds have been seen with the older camera.
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
Wonder if that correlates to obesity.
:(){
At what point will Barbra Streisand file a lawsuit against them, for posting pictures of her Mars colony?
u it.html
http://www.californiacoastline.org/streisand/laws
"That rock looks only meters away! No, I mean yardss... AW CRAP NOT AGAIN!"
So why can't they use a camera like this to photograph the Apollo landing site, the lunar rover, etc?
Well, the Americans werent first to go to space... But they turned the whole thing upside down by going to moon.
Who really cares if Russians made this first, and most important step of mankind. Because Americans landed on the f*king moon, and there is a cute flag there too if someone happens to find oil in there...
Here a nice hi-res picture of Cydonia that was posted yesterday to Astronomy Picture of the Day website. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060926.html
As far as I can see the submitter did not provide a link to the actual press release announcing the details so here it is.
I hope this doesn't start up another barrage of shitty Mars movies...Red Planet, Mission to Mars, Ghosts of Mars...
Mars is gay.
Go U of A!
/* No Comment */
...can they look for my car. I parked it somewhere there (I think) last night and couldn't find it after I got out of the bar. It's a VW Bug, license 5773MH
****
"I'd never want to join a club that would have me as a member" - G. Marx
Yeah, I've checked out Cydonia several times, but have lost my whole squad every time-damm aliens!
Next time I'm going to Cydonia with 18 of my best squaddies, 2 hover tanks with blaster launchers, and several psi amps...I'll show 'em, by garsh!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
New images have been taken today and are online!