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Terabytes of Mars Pictures Released to Public

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the bandwidth-fu dept.

Riding with Robots writes "The team that runs the high-rez camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has just released more than 1,200 Mars images to the Planetary Data System, NASA's mission data archive. The team has also released 1.7 Terabytes of data to a user-friendly site that allows users to quickly home in on each image, most of which are a gigabyte-sized files measuring 20,000 by 50,000 pixels. Not all the images have been thoroughly studied yet: in the announcement, the camera's lead scientist said, 'These images must contain hundreds of important discoveries about Mars. We just need time to realize what they are.'"

6 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Google Mars by geekmansworld · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does this mean we can look forward to a new, improved Google Mars?

  2. Stress test by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Terrabytes of data, linked to slashdot...seriously what could go wrong?

  3. free images of Earth and Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's funny that freely available satellite images of Mars have greater resolution than freely available images of Earth.

  4. Wrong title? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought we had Terrabytes of Earth pictures. Wouldn't we have Marsbytes of Mars pics?

  5. Re:1.7 Terabytes..... what a waste! by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    What? What are you talking about, just look at her, she's got HUGE volcanoes, man! I'd motorboat the hell out of those mountains. She's got the deepest gash of any planet in the freakin' solar system dude! I'd totally hit the Valles Marineris.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  6. Re:With one thing edited out that is.... by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pictures of the faces on the surfaces! It's a conspiracy. They didn't land a man on the moon, but there is Jesus on Mars.

    With so many images in the public hands, there are bound to be some interesting "patterns" found that will generate gajillion conspiracy theories. Even with the Viking landers that returned only a limited amount of images, people found letters on rocks. With the rovers, people are finding skulls and lots of other doodads. With even more images out there, there are likely to be even more coincidental shapes found. The more patterns available to search, the more coincidental iconic images will be found. Maybe they'll find Elvis tap dancing with Jesus under a pyrimid. This raises a hugely important question: How do I buy stock in conspiracy books?

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    Table-ized A.I.