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Author Topic: Space Thread  (Read 509611 times)
lac
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Reply #35 on: August 08, 2012, 12:19:28 PM

Seriously... 20k years from now some alien race is going to hit Mars and find bits and pieces of these rovers and wonder what the hell happened to the creators.
Yeah, they'll look at the skycrane remnants and think 'wtf were those idiots thinking, this thing could never have taken off'.
Sheepherder
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Reply #36 on: August 14, 2012, 12:44:02 AM

Or they'll just look at the pockmarked and cratered Earth scattered with the remnants of The War of the American Succession and be like "Oh, that's what happened."
01101010
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You call it an accident. I call it justice.


Reply #37 on: August 24, 2012, 06:50:49 AM

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/index.cfm?v=81

Pretty neat vid of the descent and landing. The impact of the comms on the video really make it so much better than watching just the vid.

Does any one know where the love of God goes...When the waves turn the minutes to hours? -G. Lightfoot
Khaldun
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Reply #38 on: August 24, 2012, 12:30:26 PM

The area at the base of Mount Gale just looks really fascinating in the up-close shots they've released. It is going to be really interesting when the probe gets close to it if in fact it's a dry wash or riverbed of some kind. The lowest foothills of the mountain on the far side should also be really interesting. I almost, almost, almost wonder if they might not actually see very small exposed fossils at some point if there was in fact life on Mars that wasn't purely microbial.
pxib
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Reply #39 on: August 27, 2012, 07:03:51 PM


Like the lead imaging guy said, it looks like "something out of a John Ford movie."

Right in the center of the image is a black dot, about six pixels. It's under the center hill and at the edge of the scarp below. That's a boulder about the size of the rover. At top speed it would take the rover 100 days to get there, but there's science to do along the way... so it might take more than a year.

The boulder is on their short list of places to visit.

if at last you do succeed, never try again
MahrinSkel
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When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was bullshit!


Reply #40 on: August 27, 2012, 09:59:54 PM

This might help:



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Tale
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Reply #41 on: August 27, 2012, 11:57:12 PM

Fordel
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Reply #42 on: August 28, 2012, 02:32:36 AM

Turtle  Heart


Or is that a tortoise?

and the gate is like I TOO AM CAPABLE OF SPEECH
Tale
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Reply #43 on: August 28, 2012, 05:28:24 AM

It's a black dot.
Khaldun
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Reply #44 on: August 28, 2012, 06:51:55 AM

If that's not sedimentation, at least at the lower levels of the hills, I dunno what else it could be.
Lantyssa
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Reply #45 on: August 28, 2012, 08:02:05 AM

It is, but is it caused by water, other liquid, wind, volcanic activity, or other?

Hahahaha!  I'm really good at this!
Ghambit
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Reply #46 on: August 28, 2012, 10:50:15 AM

If that's not sedimentation, at least at the lower levels of the hills, I dunno what else it could be.

It's an alien strip mine.  Seriously, that's what it looks like.
What if they dig down a bit and find an adamantium chisel or something.   Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

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Kail
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Reply #47 on: August 28, 2012, 10:58:36 AM

If that's not sedimentation, at least at the lower levels of the hills, I dunno what else it could be.

It's an alien strip mine.  Seriously, that's what it looks like.
What if they dig down a bit and find an adamantium chisel or something.   Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

I'd be more amazed at the discovery of adamantium than the chisel, myself.
Ghambit
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Reply #48 on: August 28, 2012, 11:10:24 AM

It'd have to be adamantium for it not to have broken down over a few 100 million years.

"See, the beauty of webgames is that I can play them on my phone while I'm plowing your mom."  -Samwise
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #49 on: August 28, 2012, 11:11:17 AM

Every image I look at, I am just struck by how it looks like it could easily be here on earth. I find it fascinating.

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Ghambit
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Reply #50 on: August 28, 2012, 11:21:23 AM

You have to remember that those images are false color.  All the greys you see are the result of added contrast from post-process.  In reality the terrain is still mostly just clay red and monochrome.  Sexy images though, but not really Mars.

"See, the beauty of webgames is that I can play them on my phone while I'm plowing your mom."  -Samwise
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #51 on: August 28, 2012, 11:24:12 AM

I thought that thing had color capabilities?

Its not just the color though, for me, its the formations too. Its less Alien than I would have imagined.

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Kail
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Reply #52 on: August 28, 2012, 11:38:34 AM

I thought that thing had color capabilities?

Even color images are generally adjusted, or at least they were (I'm not really familiar with Curiosity).  Here's an article about the Spirit rover, for example:
Quote
So far, however, the images produced are only approximate martian colors. That's because many of the pictures are taken with set of camera filters that include near-infrared or ultraviolet wavelengths, which our eyes do not perceive. Overall, there are 14 "geology" filters (two additional camera filters were designed exclusively to observe the sun). Scientists find these geology filters extremely useful because they provide maximum contrast for analyzing some of the most interesting geological features at the landing site.

"We almost never choose to take the images in natural color, because that's not as helpful to us scientifically," said Eric. "However, we're able to approximate what humans might see because Jim's team lived and breathed with this camera for many years, experimenting to get the colors in the camera models just right."
Ghambit
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Reply #53 on: August 28, 2012, 11:43:04 AM

The imagers have color capabilities (three CCDs of three each, RGB I believe).  But they tweak the values to show darks as REALLY dark, so they can more easily pick out science targets.  


"See, the beauty of webgames is that I can play them on my phone while I'm plowing your mom."  -Samwise
pxib
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Reply #54 on: August 28, 2012, 11:52:21 AM

Yeah plus they try to make things look like they would under earth's atmospheric and lighting conditions, so that geologists familiar with Earth can grok them. Mars's sky is naturally pink, full of pink dust, illuminating pink rocks and pink sand. With occasional orange and red.

That said, it looks like the high desert does on Earth because it was formed in more or less the same way: Sedimentation eroded by wind rather than rain. What's missing is faults. There hasn't been plate tectonics on Mars for at least four billion years, and it's possible there never was. The sediment layers don't get broken up and twisted sideways by subduction, they just sit where they lay. So it looks like the deserts of western Utah or northern Arizona, say, rather than southeastern California.

I'm just thrilled to see real terrain. In the past, for safety and due to assumed landing inaccuracy, they've landed in some of the most boring places on the planet. We're finally getting to see the good stuff. Now imagine Valles Marineris: Like the Grand Canyon except three miles deep, up to 80 miles wide, and stretching the distance from San Francisco to Boston.

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Khaldun
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Reply #55 on: August 28, 2012, 12:50:17 PM

They're doing a lot of white balancing, yeah. You can see some of the same images without color correction, etc. and it is indeed pretty monochrome, much harder to relate to.
proudft
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Reply #56 on: August 28, 2012, 12:57:49 PM

Yep, it's a lot more alien-looking without the correction:

Either way, I get no sense of scale at all on these pictures.  Those hills in the background look maybe 1500 feet tall, and a mile or two away, but noooo, they are gigantic and really far off.  Different atmosphere and no trees/mountain goats really messes with one's brain, I guess.
Ingmar
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Reply #57 on: August 28, 2012, 12:59:11 PM

Turtle  Heart


Or is that a tortoise?

Tortoise.

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pxib
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Reply #58 on: August 28, 2012, 01:00:04 PM

Scale will be a lot more obvious when the rover is actually driving around in those canyons a year or so from now. I look forward to watching them loom overhead.

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Ghambit
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Reply #59 on: August 28, 2012, 01:05:07 PM

One of the disadvantages of this design is that they can't leave a cam system static at the point of landing.  The rover carries everything.  Other rovers had cams on the landers that got to watch the rovers from the 3rd person.  That'd REALLY have helped here on this mission.


"See, the beauty of webgames is that I can play them on my phone while I'm plowing your mom."  -Samwise
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #60 on: August 28, 2012, 01:06:47 PM

Yep, it's a lot more alien-looking without the correction:

Either way, I get no sense of scale at all on these pictures.  Those hills in the background look maybe 1500 feet tall, and a mile or two away, but noooo, they are gigantic and really far off.  Different atmosphere and no trees/mountain goats really messes with one's brain, I guess.

That still looks like somewhere on earth.

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proudft
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Reply #61 on: August 28, 2012, 01:22:39 PM

You must have terrible smog!
Khaldun
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Reply #62 on: August 28, 2012, 01:56:09 PM

It's easier to see in the non-corrected version that they're going to have some serious challenges with deep sand at various points.
Ghambit
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Reply #63 on: August 28, 2012, 02:00:35 PM

It's easier to see in the non-corrected version that they're going to have some serious challenges with deep sand at various points.

Uhh, no.  And there are 6 of these on a semi-independent suspension and a long arm that can dig "just in case."

"See, the beauty of webgames is that I can play them on my phone while I'm plowing your mom."  -Samwise
pxib
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Reply #64 on: August 28, 2012, 02:31:29 PM

It's easier to see in the non-corrected version that they're going to have some serious challenges with deep sand at various points.
Also the parts that look sandy from where the rover is now are at least a mile away. Most are several miles. They're as likely to be pebbles or gravel as finer dust. Plus it's not as hard to drive there as it is here. In Martian gravity the angle of repose is steeper on earth, so slops aren't as fragile as we imagine them to be.

if at last you do succeed, never try again
Khaldun
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Reply #65 on: August 28, 2012, 03:58:49 PM

I guess. I've already read that that there's an area approaching the base of Mt. Sharp that worries them enough that they're going to take a long detour around it, eight months or so from now.
pxib
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Reply #66 on: August 28, 2012, 05:08:16 PM

Yeah, but they're NASA. Worry is their middle name.

And they'll enjoy every Martian minute of that detour.

if at last you do succeed, never try again
pxib
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Reply #67 on: August 31, 2012, 09:38:57 PM

Here is the high resolution images from Curiosity's landing cameras during the final phases, slowed down to real time with frame interpolation to make it relatively smooth. Mars!

if at last you do succeed, never try again
Ghambit
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Reply #68 on: September 02, 2012, 10:21:03 AM

That's amateur work btw.  And more than just interpolated.  He's cleared up the dark frames also.  Awesome work and a testament to WHY the mission director is so adament about making the data as public as possible.

"See, the beauty of webgames is that I can play them on my phone while I'm plowing your mom."  -Samwise
Khaldun
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Reply #69 on: September 02, 2012, 06:02:50 PM

Bingo. Actually that point will help me this week as I try to make a case for why publishing public, reworkable "big data" is a good thing for almost every institution and project, maybe even some corporations. My colleagues are a very hard sell on this point (that is, when they even understand what I mean by it.).
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