Okay, I took a swipe at color correcting the photo you've posted to bring the four color keys more in-line with the photo you've shown that's supposed to be from the lander when it's here on Earth. I didn't nail the exact hues, but the colors are close enough.....so what's up with your point? Are you just saying that they're adding an extra dash of poetic license to the photos to make them Mars-ier or is there something else afoot that we should know about? Do tell!
This image [below] taken on Mars by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's color calibration target, also known as the MarsDial. The target's mirror and the shadows cast on it by the Sun help scientists determine the degree to which dusty martian skies alter the panoramic camera's perception of color. By adjusting for this effect, Mars can be seen in all its true colors.
part of the reason "blue" shifts to "pink" is that that particular shade of shows a strong spectral response in one specific filter wavelength outside our normal perceptual range (but which is valuable for scientific study)
Steve Squyres and Jim ( Pancam lead Scientist ) talked about this exact thing a few briefings ago.
Curiousburb, thanks for the additional information, exactly what I was getting at....so Ganondorf, who are THEY and what are they trying to DO to us by shifting the colors?
I see that Keith also has an interest in the Martian geological feature known as "the face". Even the hard sci-fi author Ben Bova was inclined to put relics on Mars and there are many archaeological sites here on Earth that could not be proven to be made by intelligent life if you were to have seen photographs of them from a satellite. Physical on-site investigation is the only way to prove it.
But. The odds are so incredibly against that feature being anything other than just that, a feature, I remain disinclined to believe that intelligent life has ever existed on Mars. I welcome the opportunity for someone to disprove me.
Then I want them to prove that it ever existed here.
They're reporting that the Gusev Crater is "blanketed in volcanic material" and that any evidence of sedimentary deposits were either scored away over the aeons or buried beneath volcanic emissions. They're trying to figure out if Spirit can hightail it off to the far away hills to get closer to potential sedimentary deposits.
The Mars Express satellite has been delivering fantastic images of the planet's surface!!
Dr John Murray, of the Open University, UK, who is on the camera team, told BBC News Online: "This is the first 3D camera sent to Mars.
"It is 10 times better than anything sent before. We have high hopes for it and how it will advance our understanding of Mars."
He added: "These first images are the culmination of more than 10 years of work. In a matter of minutes, we are able to map an area greater than Great Britain and Ireland showing details down to a few metres in diameter.
"At the end of the two-year mission, we will know the surface of Mars better than we do the Earth.
Picture taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard ESA's Mars Express orbiter on 14 January 2004. It shows an area 1057 miles (1,700 km) long and about 41 miles (65 km) wide that was captured by the HRSC as the satellite flew at an altitude of 171 miles (275 km).
CREDIT: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
This image shows the Valles Marineris region in perspective view as if seen from a low-flying aircraft. This perspective view was generated on a computer from the original first image data.
CREDIT: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Meanwhile, over in Gusev crater...
Spirit is heading for the target rocks "Adirondack", "Sushi" and "Sashimi" in the "Wasabi region"
How many of you folks have read the books by Robinson?
Yeah, I started reading Robinson hardcore in school. It was different from Chronicles - Bradbury was fantastic, but Robinson's trilogy had the opportunity to dwell into some of the social questions that could arise when colonization happens. It doesn't even have to be colonization - when we establish a research outpost there, all of the same dynamics we go through here will crop up there.
Of course, with Robinson came Zubrin and that led to British conference on Mars habitation etc., etc. Heck! I had planned on using my thesis to investigate the architectural implications for a Mars habitat. I mean, from an architectural point of view, can we import our "rituals of living" to Mars and expect it to work? What kind of changes will we need to face to adapt to a martian environment? Talk about cabin fever, right? So many questions - structure, shelter, materials, psychology... Well. This post is a little OT from the rover mission, but the question you posed concerning Robinson reminded me of something that I haven't looked at in a long time and got all excited again!
okay... for those who don't like or dispute the photographic colours of Pancam
Today, Spirit returned the first spectrographic images of Gusev soil
Alpha Particle Xray Spectrometer
Quote:
This graph or spectrum taken by the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the variety of elements present in the soil at the rover's landing site. In agreement with past missions to Mars, iron and silicon make up the majority of the martian soil. Sulfur and chlorine were also observed as expected. Trace elements detected for the first time include zinc and nickel. These latter observations demonstrate the power of the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer to pick up the signatures of elements too faint to be seen before. The alpha particle X-ray spectrometer uses alpha particles and X-rays to measure the presence and abundance of all major rock-forming elements except hydrogen.
Mossbauer
Quote:
This graph or spectrum captured by the Moessbauer spectrometer onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the presence of three different iron-bearing minerals in the soil at the rover's landing site. One of these minerals has been identified as olivine, a shiny green rock commonly found in lava on Earth. The other two have yet to be pinned down. Scientists were puzzled by the discovery of olivine because it implies the soil consists at least partially of ground up rocks that have not been weathered or chemically altered. The black line in this graph represents the original data; the three colored regions denote individual minerals and add up to equal the black line. The Moessbauer spectrometer uses two pieces of radioactive cobalt-57, each about the size of pencil erasers, to determine with a high degree of accuracy the composition and abundance of iron-bearing minerals in martian rocks and soil. It is located on the rover's instrument deployment device, or "arm."
Its like you bought all the ingrediences for that great omelet you just love, prepared it all well and perfect and you by accident drop it into the sink where your socks are soaked in washing powder AFTER the stores are closed and you haven´t any eggs left.
If you're talking about Spirit, they believe they have contact at 7.8bps - the default "I'm stuck with a RSOD*" software error failsafe mode. News should break soon regarding this. (It's good to have moles at NASA. )
*RSOD - Red Screen of Death. It *IS* Mars, after all.
It's alive, it has functioning power systems, some software capabilities, and some communications... but it seems to be bouncing all around the fault tree. They can't get the same error code out of it twice in a row, apparently. \
And, to boot, it refuses to downlink it's main telemetry which carries the debugging data. :P
So it's there, it's just in its own little personal spinning wheel of doom.
Comments
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...inal-A10R1.jpg
Nice image anyway. Click the link for the full resolution version.
and from http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...20040110a.html
True Colors of Mars
This image [below] taken on Mars by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's color calibration target, also known as the MarsDial. The target's mirror and the shadows cast on it by the Sun help scientists determine the degree to which dusty martian skies alter the panoramic camera's perception of color. By adjusting for this effect, Mars can be seen in all its true colors.
part of the reason "blue" shifts to "pink" is that that particular shade of shows a strong spectral response in one specific filter wavelength outside our normal perceptual range (but which is valuable for scientific study)
Steve Squyres and Jim ( Pancam lead Scientist ) talked about this exact thing a few briefings ago.
For real, I'm interested.
http://www.panoramas.dk/
I see that Keith also has an interest in the Martian geological feature known as "the face". Even the hard sci-fi author Ben Bova was inclined to put relics on Mars and there are many archaeological sites here on Earth that could not be proven to be made by intelligent life if you were to have seen photographs of them from a satellite. Physical on-site investigation is the only way to prove it.
But. The odds are so incredibly against that feature being anything other than just that, a feature, I remain disinclined to believe that intelligent life has ever existed on Mars. I welcome the opportunity for someone to disprove me.
Then I want them to prove that it ever existed here.
The Mars Express is going to team with the Spirit to do some complementary observations.....very cool!
Edit: Tonight's the night we roll off onto the Martian regolith!!! Party on!
Six wheels on the surface.
They're reporting that the Gusev Crater is "blanketed in volcanic material" and that any evidence of sedimentary deposits were either scored away over the aeons or buried beneath volcanic emissions. They're trying to figure out if Spirit can hightail it off to the far away hills to get closer to potential sedimentary deposits.
Time for a road trip!
The Mars Express satellite has been delivering fantastic images of the planet's surface!!
Dr John Murray, of the Open University, UK, who is on the camera team, told BBC News Online: "This is the first 3D camera sent to Mars.
"It is 10 times better than anything sent before. We have high hopes for it and how it will advance our understanding of Mars."
He added: "These first images are the culmination of more than 10 years of work. In a matter of minutes, we are able to map an area greater than Great Britain and Ireland showing details down to a few metres in diameter.
"At the end of the two-year mission, we will know the surface of Mars better than we do the Earth.
Follow this link to the Beeb's website for more!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3410631.stm
What are the sheeplike drones of local news reporters going to say when it turns out that the Mars Express mission WASN'T a "failure".
Ha!
click for bigger versions
CREDIT: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
CREDIT: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Meanwhile, over in Gusev crater...
Spirit is heading for the target rocks "Adirondack", "Sushi" and "Sashimi" in the "Wasabi region"
and making donuts along the way
mmmm donuts...
more about Adirondack and other target rocks
Originally posted by drewprops
How many of you folks have read the books by Robinson?
Yeah, I started reading Robinson hardcore in school. It was different from Chronicles - Bradbury was fantastic, but Robinson's trilogy had the opportunity to dwell into some of the social questions that could arise when colonization happens. It doesn't even have to be colonization - when we establish a research outpost there, all of the same dynamics we go through here will crop up there.
Of course, with Robinson came Zubrin and that led to British conference on Mars habitation etc., etc. Heck! I had planned on using my thesis to investigate the architectural implications for a Mars habitat. I mean, from an architectural point of view, can we import our "rituals of living" to Mars and expect it to work? What kind of changes will we need to face to adapt to a martian environment? Talk about cabin fever, right? So many questions - structure, shelter, materials, psychology... Well. This post is a little OT from the rover mission, but the question you posed concerning Robinson reminded me of something that I haven't looked at in a long time and got all excited again!
Today, Spirit returned the first spectrographic images of Gusev soil
Alpha Particle Xray Spectrometer
This graph or spectrum taken by the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the variety of elements present in the soil at the rover's landing site. In agreement with past missions to Mars, iron and silicon make up the majority of the martian soil. Sulfur and chlorine were also observed as expected. Trace elements detected for the first time include zinc and nickel. These latter observations demonstrate the power of the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer to pick up the signatures of elements too faint to be seen before. The alpha particle X-ray spectrometer uses alpha particles and X-rays to measure the presence and abundance of all major rock-forming elements except hydrogen.
Mossbauer
This graph or spectrum captured by the Moessbauer spectrometer onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the presence of three different iron-bearing minerals in the soil at the rover's landing site. One of these minerals has been identified as olivine, a shiny green rock commonly found in lava on Earth. The other two have yet to be pinned down. Scientists were puzzled by the discovery of olivine because it implies the soil consists at least partially of ground up rocks that have not been weathered or chemically altered. The black line in this graph represents the original data; the three colored regions denote individual minerals and add up to equal the black line. The Moessbauer spectrometer uses two pieces of radioactive cobalt-57, each about the size of pencil erasers, to determine with a high degree of accuracy the composition and abundance of iron-bearing minerals in martian rocks and soil. It is located on the rover's instrument deployment device, or "arm."
both from Spirit's Gallery for Jan 20
Bummer...
*RSOD - Red Screen of Death. It *IS* Mars, after all.
Windows for Mars Cars
And, to boot, it refuses to downlink it's main telemetry which carries the debugging data. :P
So it's there, it's just in its own little personal spinning wheel of doom.
Originally posted by Kickaha
So it's there, it's just in its own little personal spinning wheel of doom.
That does sound like a Wintel pc