Spirit Takes Snapshot of Earth

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."

YAY

[Killjoy_NL]

I CAN SEE MY HOUSE FROM HERE :D

Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

They're not fooling anyone...

[Anonymous Coward]

we all know the earth is flat and the "moon landings" were faked.

Check it out...

[loserbert]

If you turn down your screen resolution so everything is bigger, you can see yourself waving.

Infinite perspective vortex?

[CoolVibe]

Heck, and I thought it involved fairy cake. Turns out you need to travel to mars first. Oh well.

Re:Congratulations!

[Roger Keith Barrett]

thanks for taking me there--at least in spirit.

So you were a stow-away on Spirit?? How is your internet conncetion up there?

Re:Congratulations!

[(void*)]

So grateful for the opportunity to be there, in spirit.

In case the image gets /. 'd:

[Jase_000]

Here's the image in ASCII representation:

. <-- You are here

Pic of Earth.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dang. They could have told us when to say cheese.

Zooming in...

[Punk Walrus]

... you can see the Great Wall of China! No, really! Just use the zooming software used in shows like CSI or movies like Blade Runner.

Before I get mail... [straightdope.com]

Re:In case the image gets /. 'd:

[itsme1234]

Ok, but where's the Moon ?

Kairos

[Hungus]

The place where the Thirteenth Tribe of Man lives "on a shining planet known as Earth."

Re:Congratulations!

[CoolVibe]

I think he gets decent speeds, but the latency must be a bitch.

Well..

[hookedup]

You have to love the "You are here" caption on that image of earth from mars.

Who says nasa scientists dont have a sense of humor.

Re:hmmm

[BillFarber]

Based on your slashdot Friends list, I'd say that's about right. ;)

Re:Check it out...

[ideatrack]

I was blinking, can they take it again?

Re:They're not fooling anyone...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh come on!

We all know the earth is a disc on the back of a turtle.

Re:Congratulations!

[Bromrrrrr]

and looking at JPEGs of something on the net isn't the same as seeing it in person

It isn't?? There goes my love-life then.

Re:It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a... Spacecraft

[meringuoid]

Wow... a genuine UFO picture from NASA. Who'd have thought it?

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:Waste of Time and Money

[meringuoid]

Imagine the night sky on Titan!

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 ;-)

Re:Time will tell?

[OwlWhacker]

That would depend on how long it takes them to edit out the Martians laughing at our puny attempts to look at their planet.

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?"

Picture is obviously a fake!

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean, how on earth could NASA position such a large arrow, big letters and a magnifier in space?

Martian Money Shots

[mykepredko]

Maybe because of porn thread yesterday, when I saw the term Money-Shots in the introduction, I immediately got a vision of appolectic Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson when they find out that not only is there life on Mars but their reproductive processes are similar to ours (with the same predillictions for watching them).

Spam of the 21st century: "Grateful, teenaged Martian sluts eager to thank you for taking them away from their dry, cold, dark homes."

Laugh - it's friday.

myke

I feel so insignificant

[Woogiemonger]

We are infinitesimal specks on an infinitesimal dot amongst the infinite expanse of our universe. How ever did Zaphod Beeblebrox cope with such a horrific concept?

Re:But the cultural impact...

[the_Bionic_lemming]

Unfortunately if you look back at the Earth you're looking towards the sun.

Sheesh - all they have to do is wait till it's night and take the picture! I hear that's how they're gonna make the first solar landing - might work you know - everything cools down when the sun goes down... :)

Re:Congratulations!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think I see my house...

Re:It's a breath taking picture

[basingwerk]

Judging by your post, there isn't.

DNA

[FrostedWheat]

If only they'd put 'Mostly Harmless' instead of 'You Are Here'.

Re:Very humbling indeed

[Eccles]

Can we have your liver [uibk.ac.at], then?

Re:Waste of Time and Money

[moltar77]

As someone who lives in Nebraska, I can tell you these pictures are far more exciting. I mean, there's HILLS on Mars!!

Re:Congratulations!

[cmdr_beeftaco]

I was taking a picture of Mars at the exact same time this photo was taken. This gives me the distance record for a photo-of-you-taking-a-picture-of-me-taking-a-pictu re-of-you-taking-a-picture-of-me.