I was under the impression it was the combination of the amount (they hope to scan approx. 2/3s of Mars) and the resolution (which although 12m for this image, the ESA website mentions 10m, with a smaller amount taken at 2m resolution).
Also the camera is only one instrument. Mineral composition will be mapped, as will the atmosphere with an array of equipment - spectrometers, atom analyser, radio, radar...
It's a pretty nifty piece of kit.
Check out: http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Expr ess/SE MUC75V9ED_0.html for details on the instruments.
My apologies, the image available was taken at 12m resolution according to the article.
The details on the High-res Stereoscopic Camera HRSC on ESA's website had the 10m number:
"The HRSC will image the entire planet in full colour, 3D and with a resolution of about 10 metres. Selected areas will be imaged at 2-metre resolution. One of the camera's greatest strengths will be the unprecedented pointing accuracy achieved by combining images at the two different resolutions. Another will be the 3D imaging which will reveal the topography of Mars in full colour."
They may not be using power lines, it might just be extra fiber-optics alongside the power lines...
Certainly that's the case here in Ireland - ESB (Electricity Supply Board) hope to offer broadband soon by piggy-backing fiber on the transmission network.
The ESB has also done small-scale tests of broadband over the powerlines themselves. The radio amateurs were up in arms. I think I heard that the ESB may have been committing an illegal act in causing interference.
I don't know what the results of the tests were or how much radio interference was observed. Perhaps someone else knows.
I would guess that the sky was replaced. The image is a mosaic, pictures taken at different times etc. The ground has been adjusted in contrast/brightness to mostly match up (but not quite), but the sky probably couldn't be matched up. Seeing as it's just a gradient dusty colour anyways, I imagine that a simulated sky was added.
I wouldn't LIKE to have to throw out a PC in the rubbish. We have to pay by weight since New Years - a heckuvalot if you have even one heavy full wheelie-bin load each week. Fortunately at the same time they've started picking up segregated dry waste - like bottles, cans, cardboard, plasticised cartons.
We have a bunch of original IBM PCs and stuff in our attic - instead of binning them, we'll sell them at a fair where people come to buy stuff that just takes up space. (otherwise known as rubbish!)
Yes, yes, yes, all very well to say the E.U. should stand up and fight (despite the fact we don't have a Union army yet and several States are neutral).
Our leaders have been quite right to shoot down opinions of the E.U. rising up to oppose the U.S., other than economically. Europe and America need to be allies, not enemies. The latter is unthinkable as regards consequence for the world.
If the U.S. does not wise up soon though, the war-mongerers both sides of the water will get their way, the E.U. will build up a Common Defence and set up as an opposing pole.
To be perfectly honest... I wouldn't have a barmy notion how to "properly" dispose of a PC here in Ireland. Possibly legally - chuck it in the bin, but as Ireland has a whole list of breaches of E.U. Environmental Directives - I don't think that counts.
> "Okay, it's just a joke, we already settled it yesterday, the French fought valiantly in WWII" > "Will they also have pictures of the devastated dresden after they bombed the city center crowded with hundreds of thousands civilian refugees and no military targets in sight?" > "Have you no respect for those that died for your freedoms in the 2nd world war - or are you just brutally retarded?" > "STFU. This isn't funny, in the slightest, you have to be a real sick puppy to try laugh about people giving their lives for you, yes, YOU, so simply shut up if you have nothing good to say."
60+ years on WWII is still a very emotive subject. Europe is still living in its effects - "don't talk about the war" still isn't that much a joke. There are still right-wing extremists, ultra-nationalists, and, increasingly, anti-Semites in Europe. The USA continues to be a strong ally but large shadow over Europe. The E.U. by all accounts could fall apart tommorrow. (And if not, it may just become another neo-colonist imperialist club) So is it any wonder WWII doesn't seem something far away for us who have never lived through it, or in many cases, our parents either?
B.T.W. I'm a newbie here, my apologies if I haven't followed the prescribed method of quoting.
I've never had Firebird crash on my 2K installation here at work - that's since I switched from IE6 back in November.
I use it for work and surfing nearly all day long every day!
It crashes occasionally at home with WinXP - but it might be more system related: a) it's Windows XP b) an intensive shockwave or Java page loading while I have thunderbird, WinTV and half a dozen tabs open. c) The PC is after all only a PIII 500MHz w. 256MB.
My only complaint is for some reason MSN groups (I know - but it hosts the only good Irish Railway site) won't let me have a HTML message compose window. Gnarg.
OK, I admit, pages are about A5 size (half A4), but the list of services for one thing is a page and a half.
Also, everything after the first half page is post-installation.
The final half page is a list of necessary browser plugins, essentials like Java, media players, etc. whose absence will annoy me if I've forgotten to install them all en-masse at the beginning.
XP is great if you do a clean install, format as NTFS (speed & security), install into anything but the default directory, customise the setup profile and copy to default user - then create your own user account instead of using the "setup" one, turn off about half the services, uninstall multifarious Windows components (Messenger DIE DIE DIE), run Windows update several bazillion times, turn off AutoRun, disable StickyWicketKeys, turn off the kitchen-sink theme stuff...
All in all I have a documented 6 pages of steps to get myself a sane installation the way I like it.
Oh, and it takes around 3 hours. (Unless you don't have broadband... then you're screwed).
In fact, I wouldn't recommend Windows XP unless you have broadband. Too much stuff needs downloaded, plus so many things automatically connect to the net.
I just wonder why anyone in Britain ever complains about the BBC. Regardless of the few bits of nonsense they have, taken as a whole they produce oodles of good material compared to the imported tripe we're all too frequently subjected to!
Mind you, I'm biased in that BBC have me both ways, net and telly - BBC News Online is my most frequently visited site.
The first spelling option has a ` accent on the middle e, for some reason accented characters won't post (even as HTML code) here. This is the more accurate spelling as the word is taken directly from French.
Well, it may not be "crust" that needs drilled through. I mean, who knows, maybe the grand moment will come, the rover will go over to one of those crater things, and voila, the rover will disappear into the Martian equivalent of quicksand.
You have to pay for phone line rental too - I think Eircom (Ex-State Telecoms monopoly) is something like 26 p/m for the phone connection. Chorus (the State's main cable/wireless TV) charge about half the amount on their wireless phone connections.
So altogether it can cost over 75/$100 for 256kb down here in Ireland. Surely we're the most expensive State in the E.U.
Broadband is only available in major cities and selected areas. Few areas have more than one provider (I know of only 4). The Irish govt./Eircom plans are to rollout to all towns over pop. 1000 next year.
Businesses can get better deals - particularly if in an area with the competitors (E.G. Esat BT - Irish branch of BT - British Telecom, and UTV internet - Ulster Television - Northern Ireland's TV station).
Broadband is offered mainly via telephone lines - though Chorus offered wireless broadband till the equipment supplier went bust.
Slashdot Mirror
I was under the impression it was the combination of the amount (they hope to scan approx. 2/3s of Mars) and the resolution (which although 12m for this image, the ESA website mentions 10m, with a smaller amount taken at 2m resolution).
r ess/SE MUC75V9ED_0.html
Also the camera is only one instrument. Mineral composition will be mapped, as will the atmosphere with an array of equipment - spectrometers, atom analyser, radio, radar...
It's a pretty nifty piece of kit.
Check out:
http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Exp
for details on the instruments.
My apologies, the image available was taken at 12m resolution according to the article.
The details on the High-res Stereoscopic Camera HRSC on ESA's website had the 10m number:
"The HRSC will image the entire planet in full colour, 3D and with a resolution of about 10 metres. Selected areas will be imaged at 2-metre resolution. One of the camera's greatest strengths will be the unprecedented pointing accuracy achieved by combining images at the two different resolutions. Another will be the 3D imaging which will reveal the topography of Mars in full colour."
They may not be using power lines, it might just be extra fiber-optics alongside the power lines...
Certainly that's the case here in Ireland - ESB (Electricity Supply Board) hope to offer broadband soon by piggy-backing fiber on the transmission network.
The ESB has also done small-scale tests of broadband over the powerlines themselves. The radio amateurs were up in arms. I think I heard that the ESB may have been committing an illegal act in causing interference.
I don't know what the results of the tests were or how much radio interference was observed. Perhaps someone else knows.
I would guess that the sky was replaced. The image is a mosaic, pictures taken at different times etc. The ground has been adjusted in contrast/brightness to mostly match up (but not quite), but the sky probably couldn't be matched up. Seeing as it's just a gradient dusty colour anyways, I imagine that a simulated sky was added.
That's my guess anyways.
That's rather shocking to be honest.
I wouldn't LIKE to have to throw out a PC in the rubbish. We have to pay by weight since New Years - a heckuvalot if you have even one heavy full wheelie-bin load each week. Fortunately at the same time they've started picking up segregated dry waste - like bottles, cans, cardboard, plasticised cartons.
We have a bunch of original IBM PCs and stuff in our attic - instead of binning them, we'll sell them at a fair where people come to buy stuff that just takes up space. (otherwise known as rubbish!)
Yes, yes, yes, all very well to say the E.U. should stand up and fight (despite the fact we don't have a Union army yet and several States are neutral).
Our leaders have been quite right to shoot down opinions of the E.U. rising up to oppose the U.S., other than economically. Europe and America need to be allies, not enemies. The latter is unthinkable as regards consequence for the world.
If the U.S. does not wise up soon though, the war-mongerers both sides of the water will get their way, the E.U. will build up a Common Defence and set up as an opposing pole.
To be perfectly honest... I wouldn't have a barmy notion how to "properly" dispose of a PC here in Ireland. Possibly legally - chuck it in the bin, but as Ireland has a whole list of breaches of E.U. Environmental Directives - I don't think that counts.
> "Okay, it's just a joke, we already settled it yesterday, the French fought valiantly in WWII"
> "Will they also have pictures of the devastated dresden after they bombed the city center crowded with hundreds of thousands civilian refugees and no military targets in sight?"
> "Have you no respect for those that died for your freedoms in the 2nd world war - or are you just brutally retarded?"
> "STFU. This isn't funny, in the slightest, you have to be a real sick puppy to try laugh about people giving their lives for you, yes, YOU, so simply shut up if you have nothing good to say."
60+ years on WWII is still a very emotive subject. Europe is still living in its effects - "don't talk about the war" still isn't that much a joke. There are still right-wing extremists, ultra-nationalists, and, increasingly, anti-Semites in Europe. The USA continues to be a strong ally but large shadow over Europe. The E.U. by all accounts could fall apart tommorrow. (And if not, it may just become another neo-colonist imperialist club) So is it any wonder WWII doesn't seem something far away for us who have never lived through it, or in many cases, our parents either?
B.T.W. I'm a newbie here, my apologies if I haven't followed the prescribed method of quoting.
I've never had Firebird crash on my 2K installation here at work - that's since I switched from IE6 back in November.
I use it for work and surfing nearly all day long every day!
It crashes occasionally at home with WinXP - but it might be more system related:
a) it's Windows XP
b) an intensive shockwave or Java page loading while I have thunderbird, WinTV and half a dozen tabs open.
c) The PC is after all only a PIII 500MHz w. 256MB.
My only complaint is for some reason MSN groups (I know - but it hosts the only good Irish Railway site) won't let me have a HTML message compose window. Gnarg.
OK, I admit, pages are about A5 size (half A4), but the list of services for one thing is a page and a half.
Also, everything after the first half page is post-installation.
The final half page is a list of necessary browser plugins, essentials like Java, media players, etc. whose absence will annoy me if I've forgotten to install them all en-masse at the beginning.
> I felt no great need to reformat it
Eeeek...
XP is great if you do a clean install, format as NTFS (speed & security), install into anything but the default directory, customise the setup profile and copy to default user - then create your own user account instead of using the "setup" one, turn off about half the services, uninstall multifarious Windows components (Messenger DIE DIE DIE), run Windows update several bazillion times, turn off AutoRun, disable StickyWicketKeys, turn off the kitchen-sink theme stuff...
All in all I have a documented 6 pages of steps to get myself a sane installation the way I like it.
Oh, and it takes around 3 hours. (Unless you don't have broadband... then you're screwed).
In fact, I wouldn't recommend Windows XP unless you have broadband. Too much stuff needs downloaded, plus so many things automatically connect to the net.
I just wonder why anyone in Britain ever complains about the BBC. Regardless of the few bits of nonsense they have, taken as a whole they produce oodles of good material compared to the imported tripe we're all too frequently subjected to!
Mind you, I'm biased in that BBC have me both ways, net and telly - BBC News Online is my most frequently visited site.
The first spelling option has a ` accent on the middle e, for some reason accented characters won't post (even as HTML code) here. This is the more accurate spelling as the word is taken directly from French.
Well, it may not be "crust" that needs drilled through. I mean, who knows, maybe the grand moment will come, the rover will go over to one of those crater things, and voila, the rover will disappear into the Martian equivalent of quicksand.
It looks really interesting.
:o) terrain.
In fact, all the images have been quite fascinating.
I mean, to emphasise further, WOW.
It's quite annoying to have to wait days, weeks, months, years to know what it all means.
Besides the obvious knowledge that it looks like reddish brown rock-strewn earthy
You have to pay for phone line rental too - I think Eircom (Ex-State Telecoms monopoly) is something like 26 p/m for the phone connection. Chorus (the State's main cable/wireless TV) charge about half the amount on their wireless phone connections. So altogether it can cost over 75/$100 for 256kb down here in Ireland. Surely we're the most expensive State in the E.U. Broadband is only available in major cities and selected areas. Few areas have more than one provider (I know of only 4). The Irish govt./Eircom plans are to rollout to all towns over pop. 1000 next year. Businesses can get better deals - particularly if in an area with the competitors (E.G. Esat BT - Irish branch of BT - British Telecom, and UTV internet - Ulster Television - Northern Ireland's TV station). Broadband is offered mainly via telephone lines - though Chorus offered wireless broadband till the equipment supplier went bust.