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Comment Re:Color? (Score 2) 108

I always wonder about these pictures, and I hate to sound like an idiot, but why don't they ever seem to take color photos on these things? Is there not enough light, and they have to use infrared?

They are still transmitting on the Low Gain/Low Speed antenna, plus they are still running the Flight software and have not replaced it with the software that's intended for Surface operations. As soon as the High Gain/High Speed antenna is deployed and the software for surface operations is loaded, they have a few color panoramas and a high resolution Landing Movie they will be sending down. After all that happens, the rover activities on Mars will increase as well as the amount of science that will be beamed back.

And a note about the cameras. The cameras that can take color pictures are not like your home snapshot camera. They have a color wheel behind the lens with 15 or more colors in it. to take a color picture the camera snaps 3 or 4 different pictures using different filters that make up the colors of visible light, then the 3 or 4 pics are sent to earth and combined to make the final shot. this requires more bandwidth that is not available till the high gain antenna is used.

Comment Loop Around the Moon (Score 5, Interesting) 258

I was 14 years old when Apollo 13 flew. I live in Huntsville Alabama and everybody here was keeping a Close Eye on the Apollo missions. But I remember the loop-around-the-moon plan was in place from the very beginning as a way to Bail Out of the mission and return to Earth without a Lunar Landing. After all, what other option is there. The unique part of the plan was to use the Lunar Module as a Lifeboat to get them back alive.

Comment Re:Getting there... (Score 1) 333

Well many cable TV providers are fighting this trend by offering free service to people who want to leave.
Now, let's look at cable TV... lots of ads... ads which are worthless if they don't have subscribers.

I discontinued my cable TV from my bundle that included Phone & Internet. It was $60 less on the bill, but they never turned it off
but Cable TV does not make a lot of money from TV commercials, yes they do insert some, but the originating Station makes most of the money from the ads.

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