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Extreme Close-Up of Mars's Moon Phobos
coondoggie writes "The European Space Agency's Mars exploring satellite will make a number of close-up passes of the Martian moon Phobos. The Mars Express, which the agency launched in 2003, has begun a series of flybys of Phobos, the largest moon of Mars, that will ultimately set a new record for the closest pass to Phobos — skimming the surface at 50 km, or about 31 miles. This is only about 5 times the irregular moon's average radius. The data collected by the satellite could help solve some of the mysteries about the moon, beginning with that of its origin."
I wanted an extreme close-up of Phoebe Cates, dammit.
It looks rather plain- for some reason I thought it would look a little scary or something. Not sure why.
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W00t a rock!
Phobos == Death Star.
So, obviously they'll need to get a lot lower than *that*. The Rebel snubfighters were only meters above the surface...
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
For sale: One Death Star. Full size. Somewhat lumpy. Amateur construction. Needs work.
> When calculating the density, this gives a surprising figure because it
> seems that parts of Phobos may be hollow...
That is interesting, to say the least.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
IT's A TRAP!!!!!!
no no, wait, I got this..
That's no moon!!!
Bubba... is that you?
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
"Phobos, the largest moon of Mars"
Mars has just two moons, so that should probably read "Phobos, the larger of the two moons of Mars".
You are ignorant. Many of the technologies that we have now owe their existence to space technology. We know more than ever about our own planet's environment, its ecosystem, weather and lifeforms thanks to the exploration of other planets. It is likely that you would not even have a computer, nor access to a global network to post your message on if not for technology developed for space exploration. There is also the simple drive for knowledge, but obviously knowing things isn't your modus operandi.
What REALLY needs to be cut is military and weapons funding. The invasion of Iraq alone costs around ten billion tax dollars per year for a pointless and unscrupulous occupation.
can you possibly imagine the horror of something similar?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Eww - no base on that moon for me - looks like you'd be living on a GOATSE world
..........FULL STOP.
Fear of a moon named Phobos (fear) = ???
I support science funding, but a billion dollars can fund a lot of terrestrial science projects, so any space mission better not be a stand-alone one as long as the budget stays so high. I agree putting a man on Mars isn't practical in the short term, but we should still be working towards making a Mars mission become practical. A data-gathering mission should have to fight directly with telescope projects for funding, otherwise it has to provide more direct benefits. For example, the article says it is planned to get samples back to earth by the 2020's. That mission would combine technical progress (getting something off of Mars for the first time) with scientific research, so it is an ideal project.
As for this mission, knowing more about the composition of the moon can help us if we want to make use of it for future missions (for its gravity or as a base), and the mapping of the Martian surface will help us direct future missions. This is a good mission, and I support its funding. It isn't just about getting pictures of a rock.
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Leather Goddesses!
This all began in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, in 1936. The Leather Goddesses of Phobos are just finalizing their plans for the invasion of Earth. People have been abducted by the Leather Goddesses for the final testing of the plan which will enslave all of humanity. Unless this nefarious plan is stopped, the Earth will be turned into these twisted vixens' pleasure dome. For some unknown reason, this outcome is considered unfavorable.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Extreme Close-Up?
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
http://excloseup.ytmnd.com/
Where are all the imps... bulldog demons... barons of hell?
that's teh shizzle bizzle
http://www.esa.int/esa-mmg/mmg.pl?topic=&subtopic=&keyword=phobos&subm2=GO
Your sight is short and your mind narrow! We're running out of resources at an alarming rates and I'm not talking petroleum. Perhaps we can create extremely good recycling technology but I doubt it will occur before another great war. If we don't start figuring out how to get off the rock we call home we will surely perish on it. We will need a great deal of effort and time to figure out how to survive in space as it is a dangerous place. Yes, I know you don't care, it won't happen in your lifetime but the work needed to take that next great step had better begin in our lifetime. That doesn't mean we should spend crazily either. We need to have a well thought out plan (I'm not sure any country does).
The amount we don't know could fill galaxies the amount we are learning is doing just that.
Neil Cherry - Linux Smart Homes For Dummies
I won't lie, the first thing I thought of when I read 'Phobos' was the classic game 'Doom', which takes place on Phobos I believe...
I can look forward to a Google Phobos?
I don't agree with the people who hate any spending that has to do with space, but there has to be a balance somewhere. I see the benefit of the Apollo missions and they were worth the cost, but space missions are expensive compared to a lot of earth-based science. This mission seems worth the cost, as it will help us plan future missions, but just as people shouldn't reject spending as soon as they see "space", we shouldn't automatically accept it either. Science will never get as much funding as we would like, so we need to be sure we spend what we've got wisely.
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Sorry to be blunt, but I don't visit Slashdot to get redirected to some shitty ad-plastered website with half-assed copy/pasted information.
Was it really so hard for the submitter to give this a proper non-misleading title, and a link to the actual ESA press release?
Is there a way to get kdawson fired? He seems to pull this shit a lot.
The Soviet Phobos-2 mission returned some cool pictures before its computer failed. I especially like the ones with Mars in the background.
Wikipedia says Manhattan is 21km, and that Phobos is 11km average radius.
Is this what Manhattan would look like on Phobos?
I dunno. I think the math is about right, but I've been really wrong before.
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
Hello, Greg Bear? I gotta idea for a book....
Weird. The story made me suddenly phobic of close-ups of Mars mooning.
Sir, i herby award you one internet, as you have taken the simple task of deriding a person, and raised it well beyond an art form, nay, i say that this may be the grand masterpiece of insults, distilled from the very essence of the tears of a thousand children, who ran home crying after being called 'doodie head'.
I am humbled, to have witnessed such a performance.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
http://www.ultimateflame.com/
I'll be sure to convey your admiration to Guy Macon, who keyboarded the word-for-word original back in 1997.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.os.linux.slackware/browse_thread/thread/856cb487f4b16ae8/7ce5765c3900529e?#7ce5765c3900529e
Epic Plagiarisation Fail for Teh Luser
For sale: One Death Star. Full size. Somewhat lumpy. Amateur construction. Needs work.
That'll never sell on Ebay!
Try this:
Act now! One Death Star. Full size. Special lumps making it even more terrifying. Created same time and in same process as other more expensive objects! Condition as new. Comes with 3 free gifts. Free shipping. Why pay more for larger when this does so well? Hurry! This won't last. Seller has A++++ rating.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I know you are, but what am I?
Except that Phobos is in Inner Space.
Outer space is the solar system beyond the asteroid belt (which Mars is inside). Deep space is beyond the solar system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System#Structure
There's some homework for you. Troll.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
It's posts like this that make me wish for a '-1 WTF' mod option.
Now THIS is the post that deserves the flame up above.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Except that Phobos is in Inner Space.
LIES!!! Wikipedia is patently wrong in this case.
It is a well established fact that Innerspace is the area within the human body.
I don't know about angles, but it's fear that gives men wings. -Max Payne
How much money are we gonna let these scientists waste?
A billion dollars?
How quaint! I am reminded of Dr. Evil.
Your brain is not a computer.
So what you're saying is that we should keep space exploration because while it's primary goal is of limited usefulness, the technology developed in achieving it is quite useful? But on the other hand, neither the military's primary goal (i.e. keeping civilians alive) nor the technology developed (e.g. rockets, nuclear physics, computers, the internet) are worth what we spend on it? How's that consistent?
(You may have a point about Iraq, but that's getting into specifics and would require being completely off-topic to logically support or refute, thus making it a fairly cheap shot.)
No, what I am saying is we should keep space exploration for all of the reasons stated. I think the simple knowledge of what we learn in space is useful enough on its own, the far reaching benefits are just that, benefits.
Military research is primarily aimed at "better" ways to kill or spy on people. It is undeniable that some good has come from military technology itself, but the cost in both money and lives was far greater.
Sorry about posting anonymously. I read an article about how Earth's moon churns our planet's core. One of the reasons Earth's core is so hot and molten may be only because of Earth's moon. Without it, the Earth would be a dead, lifeless place, maybe a lot like Mars and Venus are now (notice how besides the obvious difference in distance from the sun, neither Mars nor Venus have a large companion sattelite). To sum up, the gravitational pull of Earth's moon provides a tidal force that induces geological heat and activity at the center of the Earth. Without the moon, the core of the Earth would be still and cold. No one really knows what effect this has on the biological processes of life on this planet.
If we are interested in terraforming Mars, it might be productive to simulate the effect of bringing in a Luna-size sattelite in proportion to Mars to try and jump start Mars' inactive geologic core. It would be interesting if one of the key features of life-bearing planets in the universe is simply the presence of a large enough sattelite to agitate the core. A example of this in reverse might be the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, whose cores may be hot and molten because of the gravitational forces of the large planets they orbit.
Many of the technologies that we have now owe their existence to space technology...
What REALLY needs to be cut is military and weapons funding.
While I agree with you, you should bear in mind that many advances in medicine, surgery and our understanding of anatomy owe their existence to war. A lot of knowledge was gained on how the visual cortex works by performing tests on soldiers with localised gun shot wounds to the head, for example.
Does that make up for the money and human cost? I don't know; I doubt it personally, but I have no hard figures. I'm just pointing out that your same argument for space technology can be made for military spending too.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Looks pretty low resolution to me compared to NASA's HiRISE images from 2008. The wikipedia page has a link to a nice time magazine gallery and the Official HiRISE SiteGo ahead click on the 3374 × 3300 pixel image on this UCL page for an EXTREME closeup of Phobos.
So nice snap shots ESA, but hardly extreme...
This is too long. Could somebody post a summary?
actually the main reason for NASA being founded was to improve the US's rocket technology so they could better deliver nuclear weapons to other continents. NASA has a pretty big connection to the military, the line is pretty blurred as to what amount of NASA's funding actually is military spending.
I must say, I'm impressed that this troll has gathered so many replies. Especially as he advertises that it's a troll.
Look at the first letter of the subject and each line in the post: "TROLLED SO HARD".
I don't like to encourage trolls, but this one was quite inventive.
To complete the circle, many of the technologies behind the original space race likely wouldn't have been funded if they didn't have nuclear weapons applications. Big-ticket science has, historically, hitched a ride on military expendature. Whether that's desirable is a whole other question, but there you go.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
...but no pictures. Closest approach will be when moon is in shadow of Mars apparently.
For the sake of argument, let's assume that either Phobos or Deimos are composed of something we really want. Titanium, uranium, etc. What would be the effect on Mars' orbit if we mined the moon? I know that their gravity, compared to Mars, is negligible, but they still have an effect on the orbit.
What would happen if one or both moons were removed from their orbits?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Except in the space industry, where "deep space" usually means anywhere beyond Earth orbit.
I wish I had mod points. It really bothers me that most people have failed to see through the feel-good space exploration and "we must go to the moon!" rhetoric to see what NASA's real intention was- to close the missle gap and develop ways to accurately deliver ICBM's anywhere around the globe. Once they got us there, NASA has largely existed to put up satellites for the DoD. The fact that the US won a major PR battle by getting to the moon first was certainly a tremendous help as well. It is interesting to note though that after we went to the moon, NASA went kind of adrift for awhile, not having a whole lot of purpose aside from doing some very expensive science. They do have the hearts and minds of the people though, and will probably always exist to maintain and improve our rocket (ICBM) and satellite deployment capability, if nothing else.
NASA does some awesome stuff, and I feel they had an unnecessarily bad reputation throughout much of the 90's when everyone was raining on their parade. People tend to forget rocket science is damn hard, and that the ESA has mostly failed in its attempts to do anything with Mars aside from creating some small craters. I don't think I have ever seen a PR department that could so easily manipulate everyone as well. Whenever the organization doesn't get the budget increase it was hoping for, a headline goes out the next day saying "$POPULAR/SUCCESSFUL/COSTEFFECTIVE project will be cut, due to lack of funding!" and instead of anyone taking a reasonable look at the issue and noting that they already get somewhere around $18 BILLION a year, just about everyone says "stupid politicians! cutting their budget to the bone where they can't even afford to keep a $1 million dollar a year project that is immensely productive!" This works... every time, and I would bet my paycheck that there is absolutely zero intention of the projects being canceled.
I love NASA and what it strives to do, but there is a not so upfront side to the organization, and I wish more people would see it.
Because no-one ever gets injured except during a war, of course.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Heh, you nailed it. Was waiting for this reply before posting that I disagree entirely with everything I said :)
One convenient locations...in Africa.
Maybe this mission will catch a cyberdaemon, or at least a wraith, on camera.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Phobos flyby blog:
http://webservices.esa.int/blog/blog/7
Better than the linked article.
Which is wrong. Apologies to the Space Industry, but you can't go reassigning scientific terms because you feel like it.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Maybe Roland Picklepail faked his death?
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