First Super Close-Up Pictures of Mars 130
Alien54 writes "The most powerful camera ever to orbit Mars will get its first close look at the Red Planet on Friday. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera flying aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will relay its first low-altitude images to scientists at The University of Arizona beginning September 29. User-friendly web tools will be available to both the science community and the public to view/analyze HiRISE images and to submit observation requests. Processed images will be released soon after acquisition to allow everyone to share in the scientific discovery process. By combining very high resolution and signal-to-noise ratio with a large swath width, it is possible to for images to be collected on scales down to 1 meter."
Ummm... (Score:5, Funny)
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Mmmm.... blueberries [marstoday.com]. Must
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I think super close up, I think of the microscope shots of the rock worked on with the abrading tool.
This orbiting camera does not have shots that are more close up than that.
With the mention of a 1 meter resolution, I have my doubts that they could even find the abraded rock.
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Photos taken through a microscope are properly called photomicrographs and they can have all sorts of different magnifications.
I don't know if this furthers anyone's understanding of the subject matter but I though I would point it out.
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Most amature and semi pro photographers don't have any trouble knowing the close up lens from the telephoto lens.
Re:Ummm...Wasn't this the first 'super close up'? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Wow, that's truly a breakthrough! (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/27/1332
*ducks and runs*
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Beagle is the most closest, I guess...
Yup, Beagle 2 must be actually the most deeperest, considered how it must have crashed its way to the martian underground.
Not Really the First (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, 1 meter resolution might be twice as good as 2 meter resolution but my dumbass isn't going to know the difference. My point is that those are two very high resolutions so I think the Mars Express gets the credit of being the first to get super close-up pictures. Don't worry, American's will not be out done by Europeans -- there will not be a super resolution images of mars gap! Every American will now be proud to say that their screensaver takes up roughly twice the amount of room as their European counterpart.
In all seriousness though, these images would be very useful for selecting landing sites for more missions and possibly manned missions in the very far future. The MRO and Mars Express seem to have very similar objectives -- studying the composition of Mars, it's weather, atmosphere & geology -- I wonder if they couldn't have been a combined effort for an even greater return. Then again, I'm just glad both of them are fulfilling their goals instead of both burning up on entry due to a conversion of units error.
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Unless you are trying to image something a couple of metres across, like a lander. Then the doubled resolution makes all the difference.
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Twice the resolution. Are dumbasses going to care? Remember, we're talking roughly about the difference between "." and, well, something half that size.
Well done and all on getting a "super-high" resolution camera over Mars, but it's pathetic hyperbole to present it how they have. Whereis the cutoff point between a normal high resolution camera and a "super-high" one, anyway?
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More to the point, it will be four pixels square.
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When you're writing press releases, it's just to the lower resolution side of what you just deployed. When you're writing grant proposals, it's just to the higher resolution side of what you currently have deployed.
MOD PARENT UP (Score:2)
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Another important point is that MRO is in a consistently lower orbit than Mars Express. The MRO orbit is nearly circular and is never higher than about 350 km. This means that
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People on Earth: 6+ billion
People on Mars: 0
I think you are missing something pretty obvious here
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To bad we can't meta moderate the moderators as "moron". Seriously guys...the poster has a friggen smiley face after his comment! What other clues do you guys require to figure things out. Are critical thinking skills no l
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No, they're working around a perceived deficiency in Slashdot's moderation system. A "Funny +1" moderation doesn't increase the poster's karma, but an "Insightful +1" moderation does. This inconsistency can also lead to thin
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Sorry, -100 insightful for you.
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You said "_ALL_ the other planets in the solar system". You did not exclude Earth in any shape or form, you specificly said "ALL the other planets". Earth is one of those "other planets".
You then proceeded to say this:
"How elastic i
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What I really want to know is what kind of idiot criminal syndicate is going to ship people to mars just to sneak the across a border and make them work in sweatshops and brothels?
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Actually, I think even a hairsplitting idiot would fail to grasp that fact.
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*duck*
*run*
(OUCH... *trip&fall*)
They are two complementary missions (Score:3, Insightful)
They are not duplicate missions at all!
In fact they are petty much very complementary: if you carefully compare the list of instruments you'll find different instruments or similar instruments that complement each other. E.g.: the Sub-surface Sounding Radar of the European mission can go down t
Re:Not Really the First (Score:4, Insightful)
That just about sums it up, doesn't it?
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I think the spin on this may have been due to USA traditionally feeling dominate in the "space race" after Apollo 11, not a slur on EU. More to ease the wounded pride I guess.
(disclaimer: I am an American-USA, and grew up with NASA- both my father, then I worked for NASA and "space: the final frontier" as always been a keen interest.
Okay, we followed in your footsteps, and got double resolution pic's.
Groundbraeking in itself? Not likely. Helpful to
Minor correction (Score:2)
2x2=4. Doubling the resolution is 4 times the pixels ^^
But, yes, I am excited about Friday, too.
Obesity (Score:2)
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And, anyway, NASA uses metric system now? Where's the American Imperial proud?
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ESA collaboration (Score:2)
Since Mars Express used an earlier launch opportunity shared by the Mars Rovers your suggestion is pointless. Also MRO is collaborating with the Italian Space Agency with the Subsurface Radar [nasa.gov] experiment. Otherwise NASA collaboration with ESA is on the wane [thespacereview.com] for many reasons.
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Free data (Score:2)
Or here [msss.com]. I agree. The NASA missions are very open about releasing raw data. It is something to be proud of.
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I don't know where this 1 meter stuff came from. The actual full sampling of HiRISE is 30cm [arizona.edu], a factor of 6 greater than HRSC, and a factor of 3 better than MOC. Be careful when comparing "sampling" to "resolution" -- they are not the same thing. HiRISE has taken the HiROAD, so to speak, by not trumpeting their 30cm sampling but instead claiming 1-meter imaging scales. Don't hold that against them when comparing to other teams that publish their best sampling.
The other real advantage of this camera is
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Wait, you have a dumbass? How much do those cost - I have a management position open right now!
This is news? (Score:5, Interesting)
New pictures will start coming soon (november?), as the orbit circularization has been completed, but none has been released yet.
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As opposed to? (Score:3, Funny)
fantastic headline, "the most powerful camera ever"...
Google (Score:3, Funny)
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So, Beagle? can we find it? (Score:4, Interesting)
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It'll probably be more than a pixel. Like an itty bitty crater with junk near the edges.
Look, here's the picture already--> o*
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Mike Malin hopes so (Score:2)
In fact, the resolution is *so* high... (Score:3, Funny)
Lens Hood (Score:2, Interesting)
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Turn off all other lights in your house and close all the windows so that the only light sources are the light coming from the lamp and whatever left-over LEDs are blinking on your router or VCR or wherever. If you want to block out peripheral light that has a chance to cause lens flare, you only need to block the light coming from the lamp. Since this is space we're talking about, there aren
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So what's the advantage of keeping tracking the orientation of the satelite relative to the Sun versus having a complete hood?
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Setup your lamp and tennis ball. Now point a camera with a full hood at the tennis ball. Notice that parts of the inside of your hood will be illuminated by the lamp. This will cause major light pollution for a highly sensitive camera.
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MODS!!! (Score:2)
I could go on, but I am busting to play with my balls and camera!
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Having a sun-synchronous orbit allows you to keep your solar panels under predictable illumination.
NASA to ESA (Score:2)
Hey, we can see your lander from here!
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Does This Mean... (Score:2, Funny)
I bet it was frickin' Starscream, that bitch.
Craters? (Score:3, Interesting)
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But the atmosphere is much, much thinner (I think just a few percent of Earth's atmosphere). Plus, Earth has a lot of other erosion effects (water and plate tectonics) that are absent
Re:Craters? (Score:4, Informative)
On Mars, there never was any real "rebuilding" of the surface at the scale of what happened on Earth (except for some volcanism, wind erosion and water erosion). This means Mars retains almost all the ancient craters which on Earth have long disappeared.
Now, besides that, Mars' atmosphere is only about 1% of Earth's, and as such, is also much less capable of slowing down meteoroids, so on Mars, craters can form which are considerably smaller than the smallest that can form on Earth, because meteoroids small enough to burn up in Earth's atmosphere would still reach the surface at orbital velocities on Mars.
So, basically, plate-tectonics, erosion and a bigger atmospheric shield are all reasons why Earth has far fewer craters than Mars.
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About ten seconds on google or wikipedia would give you an answer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars#Atmosphere [wikipedia.org]
Great! (Score:1)
Richard C. Hogaland (Score:2)
Barbra Streisand (Score:1)
http://www.californiacoastline.org/streisand/laws
Hey Charlie! (Score:1)
Apollo lander? (Score:2)
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Link to the actual press release (Score:1)
Movies... (Score:1)
Sweet (Score:1)
If they're taking imaging requests... (Score:2)
New images are online (Score:1)
New images have been taken today and are online!
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Search for "face" and you'll see what I mean.
I'm not saying there's any sort of conspiracy here, but I'm very suspicious of NASA and the DOD and believe that they are witholding important data regarding (past) life and civilizations on Mars.
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Please tell me you are fishing for a funny mod.
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Neither do I but I think the ALH84001 episode showed that NASA would jump on any evidence of life on mars as justification for a future manned mission. Many of their press releases about the Mars Exploration Rovers have focused on evidence of conditions supportive of life. If there was anything to the Face I wou
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Is it really "intensely curious", or is it the fact that it's just not that interesting an area? Hasn't it been analyzed to death already? Does it even look like a face if you don't squint your eyes and believe?
Here's a few links about it anyway: .html [badastronomy.com]
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/ mars_face_010525-1.html [space.com]
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM09F8L U RE_0.html [esa.int] http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/2 2/0634233 [slashdot.org] http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/hoagland/face
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I was talking about scientific interest as compared to conspiracy-theoretic interest. Of course anything
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Obig. Xcom comment: (Score:2)
Next time I'm going to Cydonia with 18 of my best squaddies, 2 hover tanks with blaster launchers, and several psi amps...I'll show 'em, by garsh!
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The ESA already did [esa.int]. It's just a bunch of rocks.
It would be interesting to find out who build these vast cities and pyramids and if they have a connection with earth.
The connection is that we also have rocks on Earth! Isn't that weird?!
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HOLY COW! The Martians are Bod Dylan fans!