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Curiosity's Latest High-Res Photo Looks Like Earth
New submitter bbianca127 writes "Curiosity sent a picture down to us, and it looks a lot like Earth. Actually, the picture's color quality has been changed — to human eyes, the landscape would look a lot more reddish. Still, it looks remarkably like the southwestern United States (bringing to mind the Arrested Development quote about how Lucille Bluth would rather be dead in California than alive in Arizona)." Definitely a different sense of the place than the one given by the reddish-brown posters I remember from elementary school.
Especially the part that mentions where the photo is from.
How much more do we need before the public accepts that it's just a few guys driving around Nevada?
From the article:
> The colors in this image are not what a human standing on Mars would see — the presence of dust in the atmosphere would make the scene appear much redder. Instead, the pictures have been white-balanced to show how it would appear under typical Earth lighting conditions.
So the story is that a photo of Mars that has been adjusted so it looks like Earth to make it easier for geologists to interpret... looks like Earth. Wow.
Gosh, some guy on Slashdot wants to move on. Hey, everybody! Stop testing the MSL! Forget all the calibration tests. Drop the checkout sequences. No need to make sure anything is working right. This guy said go. Just apply all available current to all the wheels. No, there's no time to make a traversability map. All power to the forward shields! Damn the torpedos! Full speed ahead!
Yeah really, I was thinking more like:
Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies
Don't fence me in
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love
Don't fence me in
Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze
And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees
Send me off forever but I ask you please
Don't fence me in
Interesting perspective. I'm a hiker and I'd love to hike Mars. All these photos are tantalizing, to imagine some of the great vistas available, which only a robot can see for the present.
Some day the Sierra Club will be trying to protect areas of the planet, to keep open and undeveloped. Trails will descend into Valles Marineris and there will be campgrounds. No scorpions, no rattlesnakes. A trail or two will ascend Olympus Mons and even in daylight you will be able to see the brighter stars and constellations. The hint for every martian Geocache will be under a pile of rocks. It'll be a glorious place to wander. I'm seriously envious of those who will enjoy all Mars has to offer, aside from just another place for the human race to populate and industrialize.
Keep Mars Clean - Pack Your Trash
Red Planet Night Fighters
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I don't think Opportunity has been wasted at all....
Almost heaven, Martian winter,
CO2 ice, rusty frozen water
Light of Deimos in thin red sky
Just can't breathe here, think I'm gonna die
Take me home, Martian road,
to that place far from home
Marineris, Mount Olympus
Take me home, Martian road.
No kidding. However, like many Slashdot stories, it does remind us that "Everyone's laughing, and riding, and cornholing except Buster."
Anybody want a peanut?
(Which is a completely wasted opportunity.)
In fairness, they are forsaking their advertising Opportunity out of the Spirit of Curiousity, I suspect ;)
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Hmm, I find Mons Veneris so much more interesting...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
The sundial's stripes are just one of several markings on the rover. I would expect a known black to be somewhere.
he's busy running the country right now.
(just a bit of humor, don't take it the wrong way.)
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