NASA Images Old Mars Landers 38
Iron Sun writes "Scientists have used the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter to capture images of what they think are the Viking 1 and Mars Pathfinder craft sitting on the surface of Mars. I'll have to take their word they are the indistinct blobs in question. The probes were supposedly just below the resolution of Surveyor, but they used a new trick developed last year to squeeze more detail out of the camera. The next target will, of course, be the Spirit rover."
Re:Beagle? (Score:4, Interesting)
That's not random pixel noise ... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's actually Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. Clever bastard! Just kidding.
I worked with imagery analysts in the pre-digital age. You wanted to see a field of camouflaged T-64 tanks in your picture? No problem. Change your mind and want instead to see the Soviet fleet exiting harbour at battle stations? Heck, it could be that too! They'd just change the captions. It was a standing joke. They worked hard and honestly I'm sure, but only they really knew the difference.
When will we send higher-resolution cameras? (Score:3, Interesting)
They must have have a pretty good idea where the Beagle should be, a good enough camera might at least be able to verify that it's there. (Not that it would matter, but it'd be nice to know...)
Re:"We can find it if we know where it is!" (Score:3, Interesting)