Flawless second day on Mars for Curiosity, high-res pic (including R/B 3D)

Originally posted by LiberalSceptic

So they spent 450 trillion dollars and they can only send cameras for 3 dimensions??
Why not 4, or 5?
Bah, stupidz nasa!

reply to post by Peruvianmonk


thats 144 meters a hour, so it can travel a football field and a half every hour...thats not THAT slow.

reply to post by drakus

lol... Indeed, how silly not to just take up the Stargate and then, people could walk over a few minutes later. lol.. A couple comments on the thread are almost that silly, aren't they?

I'm so stunned and amazed with this one. The first I'd watched live coverage and blow by blow for the landing in real time. I can't wait for the color to arrive.

Maybe those big 3-D "House Printer" machines will work out and someday it will be a few of those we watch land. Wouldn't this view be magical with a couple of those, building man's first town on Mars while we sit back here and watch it go up. This little guy is the pioneer to making that happen, IMO.

Way to go NASA!

reply to post by Hudson69

It could, but it won't. Remember that 28 minute roundtrip delay. They will move a short distance at a time (being wary of road hazards).

reply to post by Laokin


They didn't run a super long hdmi cable?

I've been saying the same thing for many years...why do they invest so many millions and billions and they only get black and white photos? Or is it that WE only get black and white photos while they get color? If that's the case, why? What would be the purpose for not letting the public see color photos? Are they hiding something, like the color of the sand on Mars is the same exact color as the sand of the deserts of Southwestern USA?

There's gotta be some HUGE reason why they only let us see the black and whites.

Originally posted by Awen24
I don't understand how it is that $200 billion only buys you a black and white camera these days.
I really don't.

I'm assuming its due to make transmitting the image 1.4 billion miles a little faster by using grays blacks and white pixel values rather than rgb or hex values for every pixel. im sure the locally stored images are very high quality

reply to post by OneNationUnder

You do realize this has A LOT of cameras on it...and they haven't fired up the majority of them yet? It's still in debug and 'shakedown' to make sure it's all as functional as the last time they saw it.

Imagine how we'd call for their heads if they just powered everything up, willy nilly or firewalled the throttle to test it's systems....and then busted a 2 billion dollar piece of equipment because something obvious got missed. Say...a rock stuck somewhere.. or dust?

Explore Curiosity with a Virtual Tour!

I JUST found that site, looking for a confirmation of how many cameras it has (17), but everyone might enjoy it. It's a full virtual tour of the rover and explains in detail each aspect it zooms to on the 3-d model. Really neat stuff there.


*** Hey guys, I've gotten a bit lost on that NASA site for the 3-D Curiosity Rover tour and that thing is NEAT! I hadn't known it carries so much. It looks like the swiss army knife of probes to send with the various drills, cameras, sensors and everything else. All the stuff we've been asking 'Why don''t they send xxxx', it appears they DID send on this one. Oh thank everyone it seems to be working and functional This sucker should give data we can can all eventually benefit from on Earth!

I can't wait until they create a communication relay grid so it can be easier to send and receive data from earth to the moon or mars. (and beyond) Right now it takes a very long time before a single colored image is sent to us and a single B&W photo which is more important IMO also takes a while. I believe it takes roughly 5-minutes a piece? At least that's how it looked like when I was watching mission control.

It also takes 45 minutes to get data, so if you send out a message to mars, it takes 45-minutes. It's not really that bad but with a 2-10second delay, you could almost stream video if the bandwidth was good enough. Live controls anyone?

Originally posted by NoExpert
reply to post by Awen24

 

The cost of the project was not $200 billion, it was closer to $2 billion and that includes the R&D, manufacture and subsequent deployment of the Rover, in addition to operational costs for at least the next 2 years. This programme has already been active for 6 or so years and so that money is spread out over something like a decade.

...and let's not forget that spending this modest money allowed the US to train and sustain a remarkable group of engineers, mechanics and computers scientists who, as the incredible Mars landing shows, have no peers.

Finally I can feel proud for my country. Priceless.

Originally posted by Awen24
I don't understand how it is that $200 billion only buys you a black and white camera these days.
I really don't.

Well not quite. They have cameras that are "tuned" (for want of a better expression ) to a specific frequency of the light spectrum. Spirt and Opportunity had 6 if I remember which allowed them to "see" beyond the visible spectrum. By combing 3 of these filtered images you get a colour picture.

Think about this very carefully. the sensor on a camera (including the one on your phone) has an electronic sensor. That sensor can only record the intensity of light at a specific frequency ie B&W or rather shades of grey, Ok shades of red on the red filtered pixels, shades of blue on the blue filtered pixels and shades of green on the green filtered pixels.

So it's not s simple as you state and the method used ensures a rigourous capture of the range of light. However, (this is where I start to back you up), I cannot see for the life in me why they could not add a $200 camera with auto white balancing simply for the "low res snaps" that they take.

Well heres what I think. The economy is bad and its been bad for quiet some time,the money certaintly will help to so many diffrent channels of investment,name Education,infraestructure,Job creation,etc.etc...But NO,the people from this company has other agenda.....to find another inhabitable planet suitable for humans,WHY??...because while we are here celebrating ,or cursing them, they have info that is not really avalilable for any mortals,ANALIZE the reactions of the people of mission control.....is not or just me that feels something so close to the feeling of.........YES!!!.... WE ARE NOT GONNA DIE.......theres hope.Even a girl was crying in the backround,maybe im wrong,maybe delusional,but why spend such amount of money if theres nothing in return other than pictures???????

Originally posted by OneNationUnder
What would be the purpose for not letting the public see color photos? Are they hiding something, like the color of the sand on Mars is the same exact color as the sand of the deserts of Southwestern USA?

There's gotta be some HUGE reason why they only let us see the black and whites.

No doubt. And, by the way, there has been at least one pic from the much fabled "mast-cam", and it looks just as grainy and fuzzy as the so called haz-cam pics.

I didn't read through the whole thread, so forgive if this has been said. As this annoys me when others do this

A few years ago we (America) gave out trillions of dollars and we got nothing in return except more personal debt!!!

At least for 2 billion we get some very cool pictures. I think one photo from the surface of Mars is worth a couple billion.

So I see nothing wrong with spending this money.

I can't wait to get the photo updates each day.

One other thought, where is the red sky and ground we have been seeing for years? Did someone forget to adjust the red tint on the cameras before they installed them???

reply to post by sprtpilot

You mean this?

But this mosaic wasn't made from high resolution images. Those have not been uploaded yet.

reply to post by yorkshirelad

However, (this is where I start to back you up), I cannot see for the life in me why they could not add a $200 camera with auto white balancing simply for the "low res snaps" that they take.

The mastcams have RGB Bayer pattern filters just like your camera. No corrections required.
msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by Awen24
I don't understand how it is that $200 billion only buys you a black and white camera these days.
I really don't.

*sigh* How is it that on a site who's motto is " deny ignorance " the comment with the least factual information has more stars than the OP and any other response?

It's sad to live in a time where a shocking statement holds more weight than the truth...

Please read up before you state your thoughts as facts....
www.msl-chemcam.com...

Would someone please explain to me; why we sent (curiosity) to Mars? What are the purposes of this?

How will any of this help mankind on earth?

Originally posted by caladonea
Would someone please explain to me; why we sent (curiosity) to Mars? What are the purposes of this?

How will any of this help mankind on earth?

The purpose? It is mankind's "purpose" to acquire knowledge and to seek to understand. At least, a lot of us have a tendency to want to do so.

How will it help mankind? I don't know in particular, other than the gaining of knowledge and understanding. That's seemed to help before.

Does every endeavor have to tangibly help mankind on Earth?

reply to post by Phage


I do like space exploration; if the economy is solid; but it's not.

There are so many hungry people in the world; they need to be fed and clothed and they need medical care. Yes..in the U.S. people are going hungry too etc.

And...with all the debt the U.S. is in....it just seems to me that 2 billion dollars could have been put to better use right now.

I am not saying to stop space exploration; but I do think it could have waited a few more years; until our economy is straightened out.