Right on! I, too, wish you weren't posting anonymously. Well-said. I'm sure some of the whiners will pick your post apart and invent all sorts of excuses for believing you're wrong. But you're dead-on!
There's something I call a "pleasure capacity." A lot of people who once enjoyed the orginal Star Wars have grown up and, unfortunately, lost their "pleasure capacity." They're too concerned with "being adult", and "being adult" includes picking apart the Star Wars films, whining and complaining, and basically blaming Lucas for their own inability to just let go of their desire to criticize, insult, and pick things apart. And if somebody (like us) is still capable of locking away our jaded, snobby "smarter-than-thou" inner critic and just enjoying the films, then the people who aren't enjoying them feel they have to attack us.
Shame on us for enjoying Episodes I and II, right?
The only part of your post I question is where you said
no other science fiction, space based film had made a profit
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought 2001: A Space Odyssey turned a decent profit.
The Pathfinder/Sojourner mission only had enough energy (they thought) for 7 days of activity on mars, so they planned a tight, fast mission and hurried everything very quickly to make use of the very limited energy. Sojourner landed on Mars on July 4, 1997, and these images were returned to Earth that same day. Of course, the energy supply turned out to last well longer than the planned mission, so the mission was extended. (The last data successfully retrieved from Sojourner was on Sept. 26, 1997.)
Spirit is an entirely different story. The images we've seen so far are just from positioning/navigation cameras which only image in b&w. But I believe the first color images from the high-res, color cameras are due to reach us any time now. We should have high-res color pics sometime today.
Spirit has far better batteries, lots more energy, and a much longer mission schedule. Where Sojourner was expected to run for just 7 days, Spirit and Opportunity are expected to run for 90 days. The mission schedules this time are more deliberate and meticulous.
Today Spirit is going to begin to put down it's wheels and "stand up." But that whole process with take two days. And it won't actually roll off the pad and onto Martian soil until the 9th or 10th day after the landing.
So just have patience. We should see the first color pictures today, and Spirit will start puttering around the surface by the middle of next week.
Failure to provide instant gratification isn't a sign of general failure, nor an indicator of conspiracy.;)
If Mars had a blue sky, they would happily release photos showing it. But Mars' sky is an orange/pink/tan color for well-documented, well-known, and readily-understood reasons.
Mars' atmosphere is not dense enough to cause the light-scattering and light-filtering which makes Earth's sky appear blue. However, the Martian atmosphere is loaded with suspended dust particles. (Remember, this is the planet which is sometimes almost entirely shrouded by colossal, seasonal dust storms.)
The dust particles in Mars' thin atmosphere are larger than what we usually find in our own atmosphere. The large dust particles scatter longer wavelengths of light--i.e., the red spectrum. Thus, the pinkish tan color of Mars' atmosphere.
You have two options: either look at one image with two eyes and the second image with one eye, or else close or cover one eye while looking at the images with the other two.
Hmm. I submitted my own 3-D composites, but mine were rejected and these accepted. But if you'd like to see more of Mars in 3-D, my own stereoscopic pairs are posted here on Re:zine (Sunday, Jan. 4th, 'Mars In 3-D!'). The last of the four is artificially colorized using color samples from previous Mars expedition photos. Enjoy!
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Ah, but the dolphins DO have a message for us:
"So long, and thanks for all the fish!"
Spirit is an entirely different story. The images we've seen so far are just from positioning/navigation cameras which only image in b&w. But I believe the first color images from the high-res, color cameras are due to reach us any time now. We should have high-res color pics sometime today.
Spirit has far better batteries, lots more energy, and a much longer mission schedule. Where Sojourner was expected to run for just 7 days, Spirit and Opportunity are expected to run for 90 days. The mission schedules this time are more deliberate and meticulous.
Today Spirit is going to begin to put down it's wheels and "stand up." But that whole process with take two days. And it won't actually roll off the pad and onto Martian soil until the 9th or 10th day after the landing.
So just have patience. We should see the first color pictures today, and Spirit will start puttering around the surface by the middle of next week.
Failure to provide instant gratification isn't a sign of general failure, nor an indicator of conspiracy. ;)
* Here's the Mars Pathfinder mission web site
* And here's an overview of the current Spirit & Opportunity missions.
Mars' atmosphere is not dense enough to cause the light-scattering and light-filtering which makes Earth's sky appear blue. However, the Martian atmosphere is loaded with suspended dust particles. (Remember, this is the planet which is sometimes almost entirely shrouded by colossal, seasonal dust storms.)
The dust particles in Mars' thin atmosphere are larger than what we usually find in our own atmosphere. The large dust particles scatter longer wavelengths of light--i.e., the red spectrum. Thus, the pinkish tan color of Mars' atmosphere.
Here's some excellent information about the color of the sky on Mars.
See? A little education and science goes a long way to calm and debunk conspiracy paranoia. ;)
You have two options: either look at one image with two eyes and the second image with one eye, or else close or cover one eye while looking at the images with the other two.
Hmm. I submitted my own 3-D composites, but mine were rejected and these accepted. But if you'd like to see more of Mars in 3-D, my own stereoscopic pairs are posted here on Re:zine (Sunday, Jan. 4th, 'Mars In 3-D!'). The last of the four is artificially colorized using color samples from previous Mars expedition photos. Enjoy!