First Livestream of Images From Mars (cnn.com) 18
quonset writes: In what is considered to be a first, the European Space Agency (ESA) will, if everything goes to plan, stream live images of Mars from ESA's Mars Express orbiter on Friday, June 2nd. The event is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the launch of the agency's Mars Express -- a mission to take three-dimensional images of the planet's surface to see it in more complete detail.
You can watch the stream on ESA's YouTube channel for an hour starting at 6 p.m. Central European Time, or noon ET Friday. While it won't be truly live, there will be a new image about every 50 seconds of that hour, the agency said. "Normally, we see images from Mars and know that they were taken days before," said James Godfrey, spacecraft operations manager at ESA's mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, in a statement. "I'm excited to see Mars as it is now -- as close to a martian 'now' as we can possibly get!"
You can watch the stream on ESA's YouTube channel for an hour starting at 6 p.m. Central European Time, or noon ET Friday. While it won't be truly live, there will be a new image about every 50 seconds of that hour, the agency said. "Normally, we see images from Mars and know that they were taken days before," said James Godfrey, spacecraft operations manager at ESA's mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, in a statement. "I'm excited to see Mars as it is now -- as close to a martian 'now' as we can possibly get!"
What's not live? (Score:3)
What do they mean by "it wonâ(TM)t be truly live"?
Only one picture every 50 seconds, 17 minute delay for transmission of the signal. Still "live", AFAICT. Those are just quality issues. Given the conditions, the quality is nothing to complain about.
Re:What's not live? (Score:5, Informative)
Its a technological marvel that even that is possible. That number drops significantly as mars gets closer, but likely drops off severely as it hits is maximum distance (because it's behind the sun which is a gnarly RF source). At 17mins its probably fairly close it its most distant, but I'm not sure if its approaching that relative position or returning from it
Re: What's not live? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You can only get "live" random garbage that matches what's on Mars with that setup. You can't use quantum entanglement for FTL communications.
Re: (Score:2)
> the pointless nature of it all
A lot of things could be reduced to this, but does it really matter if you're looking at the real Proxima Centauri or a slice of Chorizo? What's the point of looking at art?
If looking at a "live" photo of Mars would get your mind racing about how far technology has come, then tune in and enjoy.
If you want to go do something else, that's fine too.
Will there be commercials? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes and from Google. :P
Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Mars has better ISPs than Montana.
But if nothing is moving in the picture.... (Score:2)
If there is nothing moving in the field of view, how would this be any different than a still image? Are they going to pan the camera or something?
OnlyFans is gonna be wild (Score:2)
Can’t wait to see all these blue and green titties.
I've been viewing it live with my telescope (Score:2)
Prof. Homer Simpson Begs to Differ (Score:1)
"I'm excited to see Mars as it is now -- as close to a martian 'now' as we can possibly get!"
...so far.
No Thanks (Score:2)
Not first 'live stream' at all (Score:1)
I've watched webcasts of numerous spacecraft landing at Mars: multiple, uplinked images are shown essentially as soon as they come through, and the mission control room erupts in cheers. Those events far preceded this ESA event, and both seem equally 'live.'
Not really live. (Score:2)