Slashdot Mirror


Indian Mars Mission Beams Back First Photographs

astroengine writes India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) got straight to work as it closed in on Martian orbit on Tuesday — it began taking photographs of the Red Planet and its atmosphere and surface as it slowed down to reach its ultimate destination. After a two day wait, those first images are slowly trickling onto the Internet.

46 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Hey India by retroworks · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Welcome to the steeplechase. Room for everyone, hats off.

    --
    Gently reply
    1. Re:Hey India by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Why the FUCK does that site require JavaScript just to view a few pictures and text? What kind of completely inept web designers do they have working for them?

    2. Re:Hey India by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey India, can we get some extra quotas for visas for out of work American space scientists?

    3. Re:Hey India by peter.kingsbury · · Score: 1

      u mad bro?

  2. Re:And they found the face. by binarylarry · · Score: 1

    Ironically, the moon's response was:

    "Thank you, come again"

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  3. Re:Frankly, those are some of the best visualizati by rahultyagi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Are you talking about most of those false color images on that page? If so, they are actually not from this mission. Most of them (probably all except the first one) are from MRO's HiRISE camera.

  4. Re:gasp! by dugancent · · Score: 4, Interesting

    and yet, still more interesting than anything you post.

    --
    SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
  5. The best photo... by bayankaran · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The best photo is not of Mars...but the women workers of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) handling the Mars mission celebrating.

    BBC has a good report and the photo...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-29357472

    As a tweeter asks..when was the last time we saw women scientists celebrating a space mission?

    --
    Tat Tvam Asi
    1. Re:The best photo... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      As a tweeter asks..when was the last time we saw women scientists celebrating a space mission?

      Umm, every time NASA does a mission. I realise there is no equality in your country, so maybe that's why you never see women scientists. Here in the USA, they are everywhere.

      Perhaps instead of working on Mars missions, your country should first work on women's rights and liberty.

    2. Re:The best photo... by quenda · · Score: 1

      As a tweeter asks..when was the last time we saw women scientists celebrating a space mission?

      India does have female scientist and engineers, but the women in that photo are not them.
      It would be like a photo of NASA engineers wearing hoodies.

    3. Re:The best photo... by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And here is the problem in a nutshell. Some women are pictured because they achieved something significant, and some idiot immediately derails the conversation with comments on how attractive they are.

      --
      Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    4. Re:The best photo... by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      yeah, I try not to do this (respond to ACs, that is), but for hot Indian women think Shilpa Shetty (Bollywood actress), Neha Kapur (Miss India 2006 and wife of Kunal Nayyar (if you don't know who that is burn your Geek card NOW)), and the late and exceedingly hot Persis Khambatta (who won Miss India in 1965). Those are just three off the top of my head, there are many, many more.

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    5. Re:The best photo... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...
      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05...
      http://www.indialawjournal.com...

      Take your pick or just Google it for yourself. It's common knowledge.

      Captcha: provable

    6. Re:The best photo... by Solandri · · Score: 1

      The same is true for men. Research has shown that attractiveness has a significant positive correlation with winning a close election. The only real difference is that there are a lot of crass men out there who are willing to publicly vocalize the bias (which ends up being predominantly about women because that's whose attractiveness men predominantly obsess over), while women tend to keep quiet about it.

      Getting people to not talk about it in public doesn't make the problem go away. You just have to accept that that's the way we're wired, and take measures to neutralize it when necessary. Like how Juilliard does its music auditions - with the candidates behind a screen so the judges cannot see them, only hear them.

    7. Re: The best photo... by Fwipp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, Slashdot is known to complain that male scientists are unattractive whenever a picture is posted Totally the same.

    8. Re:The best photo... by gshegosh · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Have you SEEN the photo? It's not about how attractive they are. But how traditionally they are dressed. Which for many people contrasts with space exploration.

    9. Re:The best photo... by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      This post is factual, poignant, germane to the topic at hand... and yet, in this crowd, this post can legitimately, literally be modded as "flamebait."

    10. Re:The best photo... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      GP and GGP posts were very much about attractiveness.

      By the way, the Sari and that other dress (forgot the name) are not "traditional" in the same way that tuxedos and tailcoats are traditional or worn at formal occasions only. When I visited India, I saw these everywhere in public life as well as in the office. In our own office in Europe, visiting Indians sometimes wear them as well.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    11. Re:The best photo... by gshegosh · · Score: 1

      It seems the post about attractiveness was censored out by /. for me, so I thought you were commenting the picture itself. As to "traditional", I've probably used a wrong word.

    12. Re:The best photo... by hackertourist · · Score: 1

      That tweeter is a numbskull. There are and were plenty of female scientists involved with (and celebrating) space missions, going back all the way to Voyager at least (e.g. Carolyn Porco was on the Voyager team, and now leads the Cassini imaging science team).
      NASA has on at least one occasion planned a day where all of the staff on duty for a science mission (e.g. for Spirit and Opportunity) was female.
      Just because photos don't make it to mainstream news outlets doesn't mean it's not happening.

    13. Re:The best photo... by necro81 · · Score: 1

      It's not about how attractive they are. But how traditionally they are dressed. Which for many people contrasts with space exploration.

      Well, although a sari is a wonderful outfit, the flowing fabric would probably just get in the way in zero-g.

      (I kid, I kid)

    14. Re:The best photo... by Digital+Mage · · Score: 1

      You would think Star Trek would have conditioned people by now to expect all sorts of alternative dress arrangements when it comes to space exploration. I'm waiting for NASA to implement Toga Fridays.

  6. Re:Frankly, those are some of the best visualizati by Zeio · · Score: 1

    The pictures are best viewed while chanting :

    Kali Ma Shakti de! Kali Ma Shakti de!

    And the high priest of the Red Planet of Doom may be seen.

    --
    Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
  7. Wow. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Slashdot commenters have gone downhill. Congrats to ISRO, Indians, and humanity as a whole. Let's not let the bigots hold us down.

  8. Disappointed by BenJeremy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    An article with exactly one image from India's mission, and a slide show of false color images from NASA that most slashdotters think were from MOM.

    I expected at least a few more images hinted at by the summary. It will be interesting if they can capture some of the more controversial spots to provide independent confirmation of what NASA has been telling conspiracy buffs for the past few years.

    1. Re:Disappointed by itzly · · Score: 1

      There are no controversial spots. There are just a bunch of idiots, and they can't be reasoned with.

    2. Re:Disappointed by rinka · · Score: 1

      I am sorely disappointed. There seems to be a lot of racism here. Here's some more: http://www.firstpost.com/world...

      Honestly, I am unable to comprehend why there's so much racism. The US is known for ensuring racism doesn't happen as compared to a lot of other place.

  9. Nothing from K'breel? by Kittenman · · Score: 1

    And my respects to the team in India. Nice work!

    --
    "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
  10. This is really cool. by flayzernax · · Score: 1

    I am genuinely glad more and more space exploration is happening outside of just Nasa and the US.

    The more people with different perspectives and regimes we get out there the more likely the information we get back will actually be accurate :)

  11. Re:Proud of India... by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To the Indian government though, I suggest the next project be here on planet earth:

    That is, to make public toilets as easily available as every other space power.

    1) China is a space power. Not exactly know for the quality & quantity of rural public toilets.

    2) If everyone waited to solve every domestic issue before becoming a space power, noone would have developed rockets yet. I think you would be astonished by the poverty that existed in Appalachia or other rural isolated areas in the US when their space program started. Ditto for Europe (portugal / greece) and Russia (almost everywhere).

    --
    There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
  12. I wonder how well the satellite is really going? by aphelion_rock · · Score: 1

    I notice that the images have either been coloured or are very blurred.

    Kinda make me think that the satellite might be spinning or something.

  13. oh wow by ihtoit · · Score: 1

    I can't wait to get some of these contour images through a terrain mapper and recoloured. Awesome job, India. :D

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    1. Re:oh wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That page was confusing - the technicolour height-maps aren't from India's Mars orbiter, but from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

      Sodding enormous digital terrain models are available for download. I suggest using GDAL to convert them into higher-bit-depth GeoTIFFs and loading them as displacement maps in your 3D editing software of choice. They're lovely.

    2. Re:oh wow by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      thanks for that, didn't notice that until after I'd hit send. I do prefer the old school terrain mappers such as VistaPro and FractINT (which does render some amazing terrain based in bitmap colour values, try it on a suitably-converted-to-gif89a portrait!)

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  14. Re:gasp! by quenda · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You don't get it. This is not a scientific achievement, but an engineering one.
    It cost a few cents per Indian - I think they can afford that. Congratulations India!

  15. Re:Proud of India... by hey! · · Score: 2

    India arguably needs to be a tech powerhouse more than the US does. It faces tougher problems with fewer resources; it has to do more with less. It already has a huge middle class, but it needs to grow that middle class to bring capital in for the even huger underdeveloped portions of its society.

    I wish them well. Nations becoming more technologically capable is not a zero sum game.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  16. Re: gasp! by jefferson.whitmore · · Score: 2

    wow, this thread went south quickly. space exploration is important and interesting to most intelligent people whether they are religious or not. the fact that india accomplished this feat using less money than other space programs is a tribute to their ingenuity and technical abilities. even if all they get is a couple of pictures of mars, that is way better than many countries on a first attempt. i wish them luck (and skill) for this and future endeavors.

  17. Indian Mars Mission by Phroggy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So does Indian Mars look anything like American Mars?

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    1. Re:Indian Mars Mission by jkrise · · Score: 1

      Well. Sandra Bullock doesn't look like Indian Bullocks. Besides, in India bullocks are male, and usually castrated.

      --
      If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    2. Re:Indian Mars Mission by AlterEager · · Score: 2

      Well. Sandra Bullock doesn't look like Indian Bullocks. Besides, in India bullocks are male, and usually castrated.

      I hate to have to be the one to break this to you, but about Sandra Bullock...

  18. Re:This is good: we didn't send a camera on ours by itzly · · Score: 2

    There are already satellites with good camera's orbiting Mars, so it's smarter to allocate the mass budget of a new orbiter to different types of sensors, rather than clones of stuff we already have.

  19. Re:This is good: we didn't send a camera on ours by RubberDogBone · · Score: 2

    You are correct, we know what it looks like, and I said as much too, but new photos of Mars look good on the news and remind us things like this are worth funding.

    To be sure, NASA did some nice animations to fill the gap.

    --
    Sig for hire.
  20. Re:This is good: we didn't send a camera on ours by thrich81 · · Score: 1

    Just put up some of the latest pictures from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which is still up there snapping away at 1 meter resolution. The following is from http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/mro/bo...
    "The track left by an oblong boulder as it tumbled down a slope on Mars runs from upper left to right center of this image. The boulder came to rest in an upright attitude at the downhill end of the track. The HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded this view on July 3, 2014."

  21. I like the name MOM but I would prefer the name MILF

  22. Do I see..? by UncleWilly · · Score: 1

    Is that Curiosity? I can't tell if it's waving..or giving the finger?

  23. Re:Frankly, those are some of the best visualizati by GillBates0 · · Score: 1

    +1 if I had mod points.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam