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[Paches]

I want that hi-res entry animation very badly

 

[FACE]

Damn. MRO is such an amazing piece of equipment.

Indeed and now they've showed a high res pic of the heatshield when it separated.

Great username by the way.

 

[owlbeak]

 

[everyday math]

Now that's full of hotness.

 

[owlbeak]

That full-res MARDI video is going to be SO amazing. I can't wait.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

I want mars to be this color, not the red we always see

 

[i-Lo]

Thanks for the image birdcity. I am just seeing them live. When I saw the image with the surface and rocks, I thought to myself, "wow! I am so happy to see land.. on another planet".

Also, what or who is Marty?

EDIT: For the lulz:

Mars on next-gen filter?

 

[Manos: The Hans of Fate]

The crazy thing is that there is a slim but real chance of finding life on Mars now.

Running with that topic I can't imagine all the crazy being said about this on Coast to Coast.

 

[Bowdz]

Thanks for the image birdcity. I am just seeing them live. When I saw the image with the surface and rocks, I thought to myself, "wow! I am so happy to see land.. on another planet".

Also, what or who is Marty?

EDIT: For the lulz:



Mars on next-gen filter?

Via Wikipedia:

MSL Mars Descent Imager (MARDI): During the descent to the Martian surface, MARDI acquired color images at 1600×1200 pixels with a 1.3-millisecond exposure time starting at distances of about 3.7 km to near 5 meters from the ground.

 

[owlbeak]

Website says that MARDI image is true color.

Full resolution: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/674789main_pia16021-full_full.jpg

 

[FACE]

Thanks for the image birdcity. I am just seeing them live. When I saw the image with the surface and rocks, I thought to myself, "wow! I am so happy to see land.. on another planet".

Also, what or who is Marty?

EDIT: For the lulz:

Mars on next-gen filter?

I think they were saying MARDI, an acronym for Mars Descent Imager.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Website says that MARDI image is true color.

Full resolution: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/674789main_pia16021-full_full.jpg

We're getting a video eventually at this resolution?

 

[Bowdz]

We're getting a video eventually at this resolution?

Yep.

 

[owlbeak]

We're getting a video eventually at this resolution?

I believe so, yes. 4-5fps video from heatshield separation to touchdown.

 

[Joel Was Right]

Whats the distance between the MARI and the descending rover when these photos were taken?

 

[maquiladora]

We're getting a video eventually at this resolution?

It will take a couple of weeks.

 

[i-Lo]

Via Wikipedia:

MSL Mars Descent Imager (MARDI): During the descent to the Martian surface, MARDI acquired color images at 1600×1200 pixels with a 1.3-millisecond exposure time starting at distances of about 3.7 km to near 5 meters from the ground.

Website says that MARDI image is true color.

Full resolution: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/674789main_pia16021-full_full.jpg

I think they were saying MARDI, an acronym for Mars Descent Imager.

Oh thanks!

Two and a half questions:

1. Are all the images shown so far including one posted by birdcity captured by MARDI?

2. Given it's nuclear powered, how long can Curiosity remain operational? Also, does it have an alternative power source?

 

[FACE]

Whats the distance between the MARI and the descending rover when these photos were taken?

IIRC the MARDI is installed on the Rover.

Oh thanks!

Two and a half questions:

1. Are all the images shown so far including one posted by birdcity captured by MARDI?

2. Given it's nuclear powered, how long can Curiosity remain operational? Also, does it have an alternative power source?

1 - No, some of them were taken by the Hazcams

2 - In theory the battery can last for about fourteen years and I'm not sure if it has any alternative power source, but my guess would be no.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

I missed a question because of the stream dying but did they talk about a fisher? line?

 

[i-Lo]

Whats the distance between the MARI and the descending rover when these photos were taken?

That's the heat shield which is meant to be disposable. No part of Rover is contained in it after detachment.

 

[owlbeak]

Oh thanks!

Two and a half questions:

1. Are all the images shown so far including one posted by birdcity captured by MARDI?

Images of the descent, like the one I posted, are from MARDI, yes. Images on the surface are taken with any of the 17 cams it has on board (so far mostly the Navcam and hazard cams).

2. Given it's nuclear powered, how long can Curiosity remain operational? Also, does it have an alternative power source?

Potentially 12-15 years. It will probably suffer mechanical failures long before power level dips below the point that the rover can't function.

 

[Chiggs]

Lol, that question was hilarious.

WHERE ARE THE ALIENS???!!!!!

 

[Paches]

Question: If you find an alien, will you censor it?

(that's basically what was asked)

 

[Forsete]

Amaze-a-tron.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

It will take a couple of weeks.

Oh, for this I can wait patiently. Since I was a kid I've been waiting for tech to allow them to send some top of the line cameras with them on these trips, I'm just so thrilled.

I'm hoping high quality pretty pictures and video will make this mission as popular with the general public as it deserves to be. It sure worked for Hubble.

 

[i-Lo]

IIRC the MARDI is installed on the Rover.




1 - No, some of them were taken by the Hazcams

2 - In theory the battery can last for about fourteen years and I'm not sure if it has any alternative power source, but my guess would be no.

Images of the descent, like the one I posted, are from MARDI, yes. Images on the surface are taken with any of the 17 cams it has on board (so far mostly the Navcam and hazard cams).
Potentially 12-15 years. It will probably suffer mechanical failures long before power level dips below the point that the rover can't function.

Love you guys for the quick responses with citations. Thank you.

Lol, that question was hilarious.

WHERE ARE THE ALIENS???!!!!!

Yea, that was gold.

 

[thecouncil]

We're getting a video eventually at this resolution?

Yep.

whats the holdup?

 

[Joel Was Right]

OK . . . I'll bite. What's the unofficial line?

There was an AP report on there being an unidentified object in one of the last images taken of Beagle 2 as it separated from the mothership. Of course it likely was nothing of note, and to be fair the fate of Beagle 2 is barely challenged even in the depths of the most fantastic conspiracy theory advocates, so my comment was more than anything tongue in cheek. But the 'unidentified object' in the reported image did remind many familiar with the topic of 'UFOs in space' of an alleged similar incident back in the 70s. Anyway I don't want to derail the thread: I was joking with the 'official line' thing but if you're curious, even just for fun, we can take this to PM

 

[Smiles and Cries]

MARDI also means tuesday in french if it helps you guys remember

think fat tuesday

 

[Paches]

whats the holdup?

Data transfer rate at the moment is quite low. They are going to adjust it so they can relay data quicker.

 

[Lost Fragment]

whats the holdup?

You ever try downloading a video from a server halfway around the world? Now imagine how slow the download would be if that server was on Mars.

 

[Insane Metal]

Absolutely amazing. Wow!

 

[Grym]

Why is there a small portion of this picture whited out?

Cue conspiracy theorists.

There's obviously a space slug crawling over the rover


;p

 

[PjotrStroganov]

I love the fact that this mission is used as a key component in a possible manned mission to mars.

 

[thecouncil]

Data transfer rate at the moment is quite low. They are going to adjust it so they can relay data quicker.

cool.

You ever try downloading a video from a server halfway around the world? Now imagine how slow the download would be if that server was on Mars.

lol. oh yeah.


anyway,

when i actually THINK about the fact that a vehicle from Earth is driving around on Mars, i feel like throwing up because of how overwhelmingly cool it is.

 

[Neuromancer]

Fuckin' A

 

[ckohler]

That short dude keeps whispering (trying to crack jokes) but we hear everything he whispers. Heh.

 

[andylsun]

Why is there a small portion of this picture whited out?

Cue conspiracy theorists.

It's not whited out in this image, strange

 

[Insane Metal]

Probably sunlight reflex, overwhelmed the camera's sensor.

 

[i-Lo]

Spirit is non functional but Opportunity is still running. Makes me wonder in the next decade (provided Curiosity is the last mobile lab/vehicle to land on Mars) if Curiosity will reach Spirit to try and revive it...

 

[andylsun]

I like the MARDI camera geek - cool that there's a load of image processing done on Curiosity itself. It's a RAD750 main processor board (PowerPC G3 at 200MHz), running vxworks.

 

[i-Lo]

Ms. Cheng just asked the same question as the representative from Planetary Science.

 

[asa]

It's not whited out in this image, strange

could be just overexposed, looks like the part is quite shiny.

 

[DoDonGouki]

Wow, great panorama ! Look at the mountains... incredible

 

[Insane Metal]

Nice. Sound reduced by like 99% on the stream right now. -_-

Edit: no, it's just over lol. But they showed new images.

 

[Cecilathan]

Spirit is non functional but Opportunity is still running. Makes me wonder in the next decade (provided Curiosity is the last mobile lab/vehicle to land on Mars) if Curiosity will reach Spirit to try and revive it...

The next rover we send to Mars should be some kind of maintenance rover. Equipped with a spare MMRTG for Curiosity and the tools to remove the old, and install the new, speedy enough to reach the other rovers on Mars, and equipped with some kind of device to clear the dust from Spirit/Opportunity's solar cells. As well as a towing hook to get Spirit free from the dirt.

Then we send the rovers to start mining and constructing facilities for human population.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Personally, if we find life, I'm interested to see what the general consensus will be as to whether we can morally justify permanent human habitation on someone else's planet, even if they are billions of years removed from caring.

 

[Jimothy]

This whole thing inspired me to finally check out Cosmos on Netflix. It's pretty fantastic so far.

 

[Insane Metal]

Relevant read:

Curiosity might prove we've already found life on Mars

GILBERT LEVIN aims to appropriate the Mars Science Laboratory for his own ends. "Since NASA has disdained any interest in MSL looking for life, I'm taking over," he says. "I claim it."

He is only half joking. If MSL's rover Curiosity finds carbon-based molecules in the Martian soil, Levin - who led the "labelled release" experiment on NASA's 1976 Viking mission - will demand that his refuted discovery of life on Mars is reinstated.

Levin, a former sanitary engineer, will make this call next week at the annual SPIE convention on scientific applications of light sources in San Diego, California. He wants an independent reanalysis of the data.

The experiment mixed Martian soil with a nutrient containing radioactive carbon. The idea was simple: if bacteria were present in the soil, and metabolised the nutrient, they would emit some of the digested molecules as carbon dioxide. The experiment did indeed find that carbon dioxide was released from the soil, and that it contained radioactive carbon atoms.

Levin's team went out and bought champagne. He even took a congratulatory phone call from Carl Sagan. However, the party was ruined by a sister experiment. Viking's Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) was looking for carbon-based molecules and found none. NASA chiefs said that life couldn't exist without these organic molecules, and declared Levin's result moot. "NASA powers that be concluded that the lack of organics trumped the positive labelled release experiment," says Robert Hazen, a geophysical scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC.

Since then, some of the GCMS team have admitted that their experiment was not sensitive enough to detect organic molecules even in terrestrial soils known to contain microbes.

Wow. That is really sad.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

This whole thing inspired me to finally check out Cosmos on Netflix. It's pretty fantastic so far.

When not listening to music, I listen to the entire series while at work. Helps me keep everything in perspective.