Elementary School Kids Explore the Moon At Close Range 42
sighted writes "The twin robotic spacecraft that make up the new GRAIL mission to map the moon's gravity include small cameras in addition to their primary scientific instruments. The first images from those cameras, as selected by school kids, were downlinked to Earth on March 20. 'MoonKAM is based on the premise that if your average picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture from lunar orbit may be worth a classroom full of engineering and science degrees,' said Maria Zuber, GRAIL mission principal investigator."
Re:Some background material (Score:5, Insightful)
In TFA, it was stated that
"based on the premise that if your average picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture from lunar orbit may be worth a classroom full of engineering and science degrees,' said Maria Zuber, GRAIL mission principal investigator"
I am trying not to rain on their parade, but ...
Based on the societal structure now, wall street bankers, stock brokers and all those who work in financial industries are raking in multi-Giga-bucks
On the other hand, how much are engineers, principal investigators, scientists making?
And based on the social pecking order --- the engineers, scientists, principal investigators have to kow tow to those with $$$
Let's face it: Science and Engineering aren't hot anymore
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Let's face it: Science and Engineering aren't hot anymore
On the contrary: Science and Engineering are very hot... in Asia.
US is still famous for their technical schools. Asians are going there in droves for a degree before comming back and getting excellent jobs. Engineers are highly respected there.
If a kid is passionate about science/engineering let him do it along with Chinese language on the side. Once he gets his qualifications, emmigrate to Asia and rake in the money/enjoy his career.
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If a kid is passionate about science/engineering let him do it along with Chinese language on the side. Once he gets his qualifications, emmigrate to Asia and rake in the money/enjoy his career
As I am typing this, I am in Asia
Engineers in Asia, like their peers in the States / Europe, aren't exactly "raking in money"
In fact, my company is employing very qualified engineers - all having more than 15 years of experience in their respective field - in Asia and their wages are actually _lower_ than those who assembler cars for GM in the States
Their income can't even begin to compare to bankers in Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Singapore
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We need to teach them the power of solidarity as well. That way, once they're all busily being exploited by the basically worthless but mysteriously rich 1%, they can shut off Wall Street's routers all at once. The 1%'s deep seated sense of entitlement combined with raw animal panic will drive their blood pressure to record highs. One by one their aneurysms will pop like a string of firecrackers and the problem will be solved.
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We need to teach them the power of solidarity as well. That way, once they're all busily being exploited by the basically worthless but mysteriously rich 1%, they can shut off Wall Street's routers all at once. The 1%'s deep seated sense of entitlement combined with raw animal panic will drive their blood pressure to record highs. One by one their aneurysms will pop like a string of firecrackers and the problem will be solved.
Ahhhh... you have pinpointed the biggest weakness of the techies/nerds
We are not "snake" enough
We do whatever we are told, and we will try our very best to carry out our duty
We even set impossible standards for ourselves
99% is not enough
99.9% is not enough
We strive for 99.999% (Five 9's) or even 99.9999% (Six 9's)
On the other hands, those who are in Wall Street - the "1%" - are snakes
They know our weakpoint and they exploit us
For the pittance that they paid us, we award them with wonderful devices, from ser
Darn (Score:2, Funny)
Given the summary title, I was hoping that we'd actually sent some kids into lunar orbit... as an elementary school teacher, I know a few I wouldn't mind sending.
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A thousand words (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
A .txt document with 1000 random words gave me a 5.17 KB file. This value is an estimate since not all words are equal in the eyes of storage.
For comparison here is a 5.17 KB image: http://www.dreslough.com/main/bandw/cutedrg3.gif [dreslough.com].
I've always been a fan of my personal variant of the saying; "A picture is worth a thousand words, but a word can inspire a thousand pictures."
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5.17 KB image: http://www.dreslough.com/main/bandw/cutedrg3.gif [dreslough.com]
As the AC above me has stated, that file is gone
However, there is another file with 5.4K filesize on the same server
http://www.dreslough.com/main/bandw/LYNX.GIF [dreslough.com]
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It's a hotlinking thing. Go to http://www.dreslough.com/main/bandw [dreslough.com] first, then click the proper image link from that list.
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Hah! You fell into the same trap as me. It's just hotlinking protection. Refresh the page and it appears.
Hindsight 20-20.
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Depends on the resolution, compression scheme and color depth of the picture, doesn't it? Certainly a small enough picture could take up the same space, but a decent sized photo is going to take more space than 1000 words, for sure.
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not to mention the potential compression of the text file...
Looking at these pictures, 1000 words weighs more (Score:1)
These pictures are terrible. My phone takes better pictures than these.
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If a picture is 1000 words, a 30-minute video would be 1000x24x1800=43.2 million words. I dunno about disk space, but that's a LOT of shelf space.
How they gettin' back? (Score:3, Funny)
Come on.
Everyone knows a kid or ten they'd like to put into lunar orbit.
Can you see evidence of the moon landings... (Score:1)
To hush the anti-moon-landing conspiracists once and for all.
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Can you see evidence of the moon landings...
Here you go:
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/09/lunarphotostop.jpg [gawkerassets.com]
Of course there's no way you can convince those conspiracy theorist morons... They'd just tell you those pictures are faked too.
The kids get to choose? (Score:1)
Yet another sensationalist headline (Score:2)
This is the dumbest thing I've heard in my life. And I don't say that lightly, this is, quite literally, the dumbest thing I have heard anyone say, ever.
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"This is the dumbest thing I've heard in my life. And I don't say that lightly, this is, quite literally, the dumbest thing I have heard anyone say, ever.
From which one is tempted to infer that you are:
* Deaf;
* Raised by wolves until yesterday, just got back to civilization;
* A space alien from a planet where people never say foolish things;
* All of the above
because the rest us hear things that dumb every day at least once.
rgb
Surprisingly poor quality images (Score:1)
I don't get it.
Why spend $375 million sending a camera to the moon only to return such poor quality images?
I looked a dozens of them, they all seem small, grainy, out of focus and black and white. (of course the moon being mostly grey might explain this last point)
Couldn't they afford a better camera? My smartphone would have done a better job.
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Couldn't they afford a better camera? My smartphone would have done a better job.
Can your smartphone stand the rigors of launch and lunar environment? Looks like you need to send something specifically designed for such difficult requirements.
Now that can't be cheap. And the camera is not the focus of the mission. It already adds pointless weight without giving any scientific results. Add to that how NASA's funding is being cut at every opportunity in all areas, I am shocked that the camera was included at all! So yes, I would imagine that they couldn't afford a better camera.
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Can your smartphone stand the rigors of launch and lunar environment?
Yes, in all probability.
The $150 Edge-of-Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget/ [wired.com]
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'Edge of space' is well below the Van Allen belts. The cost of space-electronics comes from having to harden them against radiation. Cosmic rays can and will cause bits to flip at random, so you need to harden them against all but the most energetic particles -- something in the upper atmosphere (which is where these high-altitude balloon cameras are), is protected by the same magnetic fields that protect us on the ground.
The other option is to stick your electronics in a lead box (see Juno), but a camera