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Spirit Takes Snapshot of Earth
Posted by
michael
on Fri Mar 12, 2004 09:01 AM
from the all-the-way-back dept.
from the all-the-way-back dept.
ControlFreal writes "On its 66th Sol on Mars, Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has obtained its first full view of crater Bonneville. In doing so, Spirit achieved its primary travel destination, as set out in its initial itinerary. Furthermore, Spirit has now travelled more than 300 meters, thereby fulfilling its minimum mission success criteria. With this, and Opportunity halfway through its primary mission, and having discovered very strong indications of a wet Martian past, NASA has truly many an astonishing interplanetary succes story! See the overview at the Mars Rover site for more details." Another reader writes "Among the 'money-shots' from the Mars rovers would have to rank the 'pale blue dot' image released today--a view looking back towards Earth. The larger image also includes the horizon and Sun, which because the Earth is seen as an inner planet closer in towards the Sun from a martian perspective, is difficult to photograph without saturation by solar glare."
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Spirit Takes Snapshot of Earth
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Congratulations! (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.tizzyd.com/)
Good job all!
Re:Congratulations! (Score:5, Funny)
So you were a stow-away on Spirit?? How is your internet conncetion up there?
Re:Congratulations! (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Saturday May 31 2003, @11:19AM)
Re:Congratulations! But... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.turnstyle.com/)
Re:Congratulations! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Congratulations! (Score:4, Funny)
And in the meantime, on CNN... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.kstudio.net/quiz/)
How strange a thing is humanity, which is capable of such horrors and yet can move rovers on an other planet and look up in awe at the pale blue dot that is Earth.
Re:And in the meantime, on CNN... (Score:5, Interesting)
But his loyalties did not remain with the Third Reich. Once it was clear Germany was going to fall, von Braun disobeyed orders to destroy V2 technology and surrendered himself and other engineers working with him, along with a trainload of rocket parts and plans, to US forces. While in the US, he oversaw the design of both the Redstone which lifted the first American into space, and the massive Saturn V, which took men to the moon.
I don't think it's fair to paint von Braun in the same brush as the senseless killers that bombed Madrid yesterday.
Re:And in the meantime, on CNN... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.livejournal.com/~tassach/)
<irony>
What a piece of work is man!
How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!
In form and moving, how express and admirable!
In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god!
</irony>
Re:And in the meantime, on CNN... (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.livejournal.com/~josega)
Oh you don't know who Picard is? Taco, remove his account, now!
Re:Congratulations! (Score:5, Funny)
It isn't?? There goes my love-life then.
YAY (Score:4, Funny)
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.tyrantanic.net/)
Re:hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:hmmm (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.thestevensons.org/)
Very humbling indeed (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/~GillBates0 | Last Journal: Tuesday July 10, @04:36PM)
Consider that the human life span of about 80 years is but an instant compared to the lifecycle of the stars/galaxies/etc.
And we spend a significant amount of that time destructively (fighting/quarreling/warring/killing/spiting). Feels kinda weird...even destruction is bad only from our point of view....who knows what's actually "good" or "bad". Our knowledge and lives are just insignificant specks in the vastness of the Universe.
Re:Very humbling indeed (Score:4, Funny)
(Last Journal: Monday November 21 2005, @11:45AM)
ObPython: (Score:4, Informative)
(Last Journal: Wednesday November 28, @05:59AM)
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.
Check it out... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.rootsec.net/)
Re:Check it out... (Score:5, Funny)
Important missions on Mars (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the realisation that the missions were not going to be highly inspirational came when it occurred to me that the first rover landed on a plain and the chosen mission was to drive over to a crater and look in while the second rover landed in a crater and its chosen mission is to take a picture of the plain just over the rim.
Seems that getting there was the easy bit, achieving something meaningful has been a bit harder.
Re:Important missions on Mars (Score:4, Informative)
(Last Journal: Tuesday January 27 2004, @06:25AM)
When the press-conference of NASA was given about their revolutionairy findings, CNN was the only channel (at least here in The Netherlands) that paid attention to it. But as soon as it became clear that they had found indications for water, and NOT little green man, they immediately switched to other news. I think they only showed about 4 minutes of the press-conference. That shows how much (or lack of) interest the press and most of the public have in this mission. And I think it's sad, looking at the importance of it all.
Re:Important missions on Mars (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://future.wikicities.com/)
Like having Janet Jackson show a breast or what? The definition of "meaningful" that general public (and mass media) uses differs a lot from what intelligent people consider meaningful. Most people are idiots and sheeps, that's a fact of life. They want big explosions, deaths and sex. If NASA manages to crash their next spaceship into Paris, destroying the Eiffel Tower, I guarantee it will be a hot topic longer than anything related to the twin rovers. If a senior NASA officer (female) poses for Hustler, this will drive more traffic to nasa.gov than any photo they can shoot on Mars. That's a sad reality, but to stand on the position of the public and claim that rover missions were not really meaningful is totally wrong.
It's really sad that image is monochrome. (Score:3, Interesting)
I have seen pitcure from interplanetory orbit to take Earth and Moon in a single pitcture. Color contrast between them has impressed me a lot.
In case the image gets /. 'd: (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.henegan.co.uk/)
Pic of Earth. (Score:5, Funny)
But the cultural impact... (Score:5, Insightful)
I doubt any image returned by space exploration in the next few thousand years will change our perspective on things as much as the Earthrise photographs from Apollo 8. Our first view of Earth from the Moon, and it showed so much. It was large and clear enough to connect with, it was plainly Earth with oceans and continents and clouds, and it was tiny - all of human history and culture, all our achievements, in that small spot. Now that's quite a culture shock.
But 'pale blue dot' images? It's just a dot. It might just as well be Venus for all the emotional impact I get from it. Maybe if we could see _two_ dots from Mars - Earth and Moon - then we'd get the same sense of smallness we got from the Apollo views, because that would establish identity at the gut level.
Re:But the cultural impact... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.outofbalance.net/)
Re:But the cultural impact... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not quite that. With Apollo 8's images, you look at it and it's Earth, obviously and plainly Earth. With the images from Mars, it's a dot. I know intellectually that it's Earth, but that's just not the same. If the picture was detailed enough that I could _see_ that it was Earth - as I mentioned, maybe if we could see the Moon beside it - then I might feel something for it.
If I only know that it's Earth because it's in the position in the Martian sky where Earth is calculated to be, then it's just another manifestation of mathematics.
Blame it on light pollution (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://kamthaka.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday March 30 2005, @03:18PM)
It takes a bit of experience to be able see what is dramatic. People are usually underwhelmed by what they see in a small telescope, they much less likely to be able to take in the magnificence of an unmagified image of the sky. I look at Alberio [astronomyphotos.com] through my little 90mm refractor, and it's absolutely stunning to me. However for most people it's a yawn. The only sky object that uniformly gets a "wow" is the Moon.
If you're accustomed to looking at the sky quite a bit, you'll find that planets are dramatically different from stars: they look like little holes punched out of the sky. Once you've learned to really see planets, the idea of seeing Earth the same way will have more resonance for you.
Mars also has kind of a creamy color when viewed from Earth; it's a bit too faint to look as dramaticall red as it is close up. Earth is a larger planet and might be a bit brighter. I wonder if the picture were in color, whether Earth might be a pale blue. A tiny sapphire glowing in a reddish dawn might be a bit more dramatic. However, the delights of naked eye and low magnification sky viewing are subtle, sometimes in hints of color, or tiny but striking arrangements. It takes a certain number of hours to be able to even perceive them.
Re:But the cultural impact... (Score:5, Interesting)
When the rovers were launched, Mars was about 78 million km from Earth. The average distance from Earth to the moon is roughly 400000 km. So assuming the angles are right, there would be a maximum angular separation of about s/r = 0.005 radians or 0.3 degrees - more than enough to distinguish with the naked eye. The moon is fairly large; its diameter is about 3/4 that of Mercury. Although it is not as brightly illuminated due to greater distance from the sun, my intuition is that it ought to be visible to the naked eye.
I don't know if the Spirit or the Opportunity cameras are up to it, or if the orbital configurations are so convenient right now, but a photo of the Earth and moon like that you suggest seems entirely plausible.
Re:But the cultural impact... (Score:4, Informative)
While the cameras are probably good enough, the Moon isn't well lit and there's a lot of glare. It doesn't surprise me that you can't make out the Moon (although it probably is in the photo).
Zooming in... (Score:3, Funny)
(Last Journal: Tuesday September 23 2003, @01:46PM)
Before I get mail... [straightdope.com]
The Little Dot in The Sky (Score:4, Insightful)
But now we see another little dot hovering above a brightening horizon.
That's our planet.
Our home.
Seen from the surface of another world.
We are now just the little dot in the sky.
Shiny! (Score:5, Interesting)
Here [nasa.gov] (top right), here [nasa.gov] (top left) and here [nasa.gov] (middle).
Could it be a piece of Spirits entry/descent stage? In that last image it looks like an oddly shaped rock. If it is a rock, what could have made it so reflective?
Re:Shiny! (Score:5, Informative)
(http://hownow.brownpau.com/)
I thought at first it was just a digital photo artifact, but seeing as how the flash of white appears in several photos from Spirit's navcam on Sol66 [nasa.gov], my next thought was ALIEN BUILDINGS!!!
Okay, not really. My next thought was that it might be the lander's backshell or heatshield. So I looked up a map of the rover's intended route [nasa.gov], and orbital images of the landing site with labels [msss.com]. Take a look at the photos, the maps, and the scales. Apparently the lander's heatshield had impacted a nearby crater; that's Bonneville.
Well.. (Score:5, Funny)
Who says nasa scientists dont have a sense of humor.
How about those rabbit ears pics? (Score:3, Interesting)
Some reports said this thing was actually moving
Seriously... (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.wizzcomputers.com/)
More seriously, I have been following the twin rover missions with great interest and I think it's absolutely amazing what they (And the JPL team of course) have achieved. I looked with great interest at the pic of our "pale blue (Even though the pic is monochrome) dot"
Even on the relatively tiny (In relation to astronomical standards) scale of a view from our nearest neighbour, it is truly humbling to realise just how insignificant our rock, in the greater scheme of things, really is.
Some of you might be interested in visiting a site that I visit on a daily basis to get and update on the latest images from Mars - photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov [nasa.gov]
I hope I'm not the only one (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 21 2004, @01:09AM)
Mars Wiggles (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://hownow.brownpau.com/)
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a... Spacecraft? (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Tuesday January 27 2004, @06:25AM)
I think that's even more interesting, and might draw people's interest as well.
Re:It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a... Spacecraft (Score:4, Funny)
Then again, with the number of dead spaceprobes around Mars it's perhaps not so surprising if they've spotted one of them. Now, if they could find the Beagle we'd be tremendously pleased...
Re:It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a... Spacecraft (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.wibble.co.uk/ | Last Journal: Monday August 22 2005, @04:07PM)
What your seeing is the result of a slow exposure camera watching a objecting moving across the sky. It's probably the Mars Odyssey orbiter which the Rovers both use as a communications relay. You can simulate that on earth too, wait for the ISS to fly over your house, point your camera at it and leave the shutter open for a few minutes.
Re:It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a... Spacecraft (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.wibble.co.uk/ | Last Journal: Monday August 22 2005, @04:07PM)
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/pale_blue_dot.h (Score:5, Insightful)
Pale Blue Dot [planetary.org]
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
Re:Time will tell? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.drydeadfish.co.uk/ | Last Journal: Wednesday November 02 2005, @09:09AM)
You can imagine them all standing around spirit and saying stuff like:
Martian 1: "Look! It's moving!"
Martian 2: "Where? I can't see anything..."
Martian 1: "It's slow, but it is moving, can't you see?"
Martian 3: "Geez! Haven't you guys got anything better to do than poke around with that thing?"
I feel so insignificant (Score:3, Funny)
Stars (Score:3, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Sunday April 16 2006, @09:28PM)
I know that it's a relatively small distance, from a galactic perspective, but is it still enough to make some difference?
Anyone?
wbs.
Re:Stars (Score:5, Informative)
(http://del.icio.us/Abcd1234/)
Distance from Earth to the closest star in Orion (HD 30652): 26.176 lightyears
Distance from Earth to Mars: 0.0000278306 lightyears.
So, the distance from Earth or Mars is 0.00010632% the distance from Earth to 30652.
Basically, we're so damned far from Orion that, no matter where you were in the *solar system*, it would probably look the same.
Incidentally, if you want to check this out for yourself (ie, look at the constellations from orbit around Mars), and you have a hardware-accelerated 3D card, I would highly recommend trying out Celestia [shatters.net], a very impressive space simulator
Re:Waste of Time and Money (Score:5, Funny)
OK, I'm imagining it. I'm imagining sitting there on Titan and really kicking myself for going all that way for a closeup view of Saturn and then picking as my vantage point the one and only moon in the entire Solar System with a thick smoggy atmosphere so that I can't see a damn thing ;-)
Titan drop (Score:3, Informative)
(http://www.swampgas.com/)
The Huygens mission page at NASA [nasa.gov]
Re:Waste of Time and Money (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.digitalhermit.com/)
Interesting attitude.
I, for one, find the pictures fascinating and awe-inspiring on many levels.
At first it was just an appreciation for the mere fact that NASA was able to get the rovers onto the Martian surface. When I think of how f***ing far away Mars is, and how they were able to hit the target, I'm pretty much in awe. Yeah, the physics are well understood and software exists to determine everything about the mission (I can download such software for my home PC), but actually doing it is still pretty amazing.
Then there's the whole rover itself. It's a semi-autonomous machine, thousands of miles from home base, and it can send back some pretty detailed images of the surface, drill rocks, sample the environment. Hell, sometimes getting cams in the other room to work properly can be a task. That they could do this, troubleshoot and re-program the machine from that distance, and do it *twice* gives me a tremendous feeling of well-being.
Then there are the pictures themselves. We're peering at a f***ing other planet, man! Never before in human history have we seen the Martian surface with this much detail and this much information. I know it doesn't mean much to many people, but this is the spirit of exploration, the pure f***ing joy of discovery that pushed our forefathers to new worlds, new medicines, new art. Pushing the bounds, ripping apart the g*ddamned envelope, reaching beyond our grasp, is what makes us human and differentiates us from some cockroach or mindless automaton.
Mod me as a dork, but I am happy to be alive at this time.