Sol 3's images just in. All in glorious colour!

Originally posted by AmatuerSkyWatcher
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

What's a field of loose stones to you, is a geological gold mine to others. They will be examining the sediments of Mt Sharp in due course.

For what purpose, really!?? Seriously! what are they looking to find and/or what will the data...mean?? To see if there are resources for us to go up and harvest?? past life evidence - that is still happening here, on "earth"!!
I am looking at this from a return investment P.O.V.

Other then finding out there 'MAYBE' kool stuff on mars... - please tell me why. Think about it.
(in the name of exploration is none sufficient.)


ThatGuy45

reply to post by ThatGuy45


Ericson
Vespucci
Columbus
Gama
Marco Polo
Cook
Magellan

Aren't you glad these guys didn't think like you?

no real resolution for the pictures taken? also it looks like we can live there, sand people

why can't they fetch some sounds from the environment?

nanu nanu

Originally posted by MorkandMindy
no real resolution for the pictures taken? also it looks like we can live there, sand people

That's why they have a sensor that is registering the radiation levels, to see if they are low enough for humans to be on the surface of Mars without suffering from radiation related problems.

why can't they fetch some sounds from the environment?

I think they tried that in a previous mission.

Edit: they tried it on the Phoenix mission, but because of a possible serious problem the camera that had the microphone was not used during the descent (one of the uses for the microphone) and the microphone was never turned on, as they only tried it at the end of the mission and weren't able to turn it on.

Originally posted by kenoyasin
reply to post by ThatGuy45

 

Ericson
Vespucci
Columbus
Gama
Marco Polo
Cook
Magellan

Aren't you glad these guys didn't think like you?

If he is some kind of new world native he may not be glad. What makes discoveries benefitial to life. We have billions of years ahead. What does it matter if a colony on Mars will be planted tommorow or in 1000 years.

Originally posted by ArMaP

why can't they fetch some sounds from the environment?

I think they tried that in a previous mission.

Edit: they tried it on the Phoenix mission, but because of a possible serious problem the camera that had the microphone was not used during the descent (one of the uses for the microphone) and the microphone was never turned on, as they only tried it at the end of the mission and weren't able to turn it on.

edit on 11/8/2012 by ArMaP because: (no reason given)

nanu nanu

microphone failed.. kay-o, what about the Mars rover Curiosity? does the Mars mission have a plan to send sounds soon?

did someone give Curiosity seeds so it could try to plant something?
why didn't they attach a normal camera on it? does earth camera need air to work? xD

and why the crappy resolution on the pictures?
how far is Curiosity from a crater? pictures of sand landscape is awesome I guess for scientists who are educated in sand. but not for the sheeple meh

Originally posted by bjarneorn


If all you do, is accept NASA, and see those who critizise it as "freaks" who "feel" things. Than NASA is a religious organisation to you, and you're not interrested in Science.

Science, is part of philosophy ... you aren't merely supposed to, you are REQUIRED to even question your own existance.

Very well said.

Thank You

Originally posted by MorkandMindy
did someone give Curiosity seeds so it could try to plant something?

They actually go out of their way NOT to contaminate mars with life from Earth. Think of mars as a big laboratory experiment. If they want to study potential Martian life, they do not want Earth life mixed in with it/contaminating it. Also, if life is ever found on Mars, NASA wants to be relatively sure it wasn't taken there by one of our probes.

why didn't they attach a normal camera on it? does earth camera need air to work? xD

The cameras are relatively normal "earth cameras" (with a black-and-white CCD and a Bayer filter for color -- just like most consumer cameras), but it needs to be much more robust than one you can buy at Walmart, because it needs to survive the extremes of space (and of mars).

and why the crappy resolution on the pictures?

The high-resolution versions of the color pictures we've seen so far have not yet been transmitted by the rover back to earth (although they are sitting in the rover's memory, waiting to be transmitted later). The spacecraft has not gone through all of its post-landing diagnostic routines and software upgrades.

It may take a few days for the lander to be "ready" to do its normal mission stuff, such as transmit the high resolution pictures. Those medium-resolution versions we have seen so far are simply part of the "diagnostic test phase" of the rover. and are meant only to show the engineers that the camera is working, and the transition system is working.

It took 90 minutes just to transmit that medium resolution color panorama (its a mosaic of 130 smaller pictures). The high-resolution version -- when the rover is ready to transit it, after its diagnostics and software upgrade -- may take several hours to download.

how far is Curiosity from a crater? pictures of sand landscape is awesome I guess for scientists who are educated in sand. but not for the sheeple

meh

Curiosity is INSIDE a crater (Gale Crater). That picture of the sand could be a picture of an ancient dry lake bed, because scientists think Gale Crater was once a much wetter place, and could have even once been a lake.

Originally posted by MorkandMindy

Originally posted by ArMaP

why can't they fetch some sounds from the environment?

I think they tried that in a previous mission.

Edit: they tried it on the Phoenix mission, but because of a possible serious problem the camera that had the microphone was not used during the descent (one of the uses for the microphone) and the microphone was never turned on, as they only tried it at the end of the mission and weren't able to turn it on.

edit on 11/8/2012 by ArMaP because: (no reason given)

nanu nanu

microphone failed.. kay-o, what about the Mars rover Curiosity? does the Mars mission have a plan to send sounds soon?

did someone give Curiosity seeds so it could try to plant something?
why didn't they attach a normal camera on it? does earth camera need air to work? xD

and why the crappy resolution on the pictures?
how far is Curiosity from a crater? pictures of sand landscape is awesome I guess for scientists who are educated in sand. but not for the sheeple

meh

no it's not going to plant anything, although cool in concept that's not the purpose of the mission.

Actually there have already been some nice resolution pics, that 360 panorama in full color is not bad at all. Keep in mind that the resolution WILL get even better. Preliminary pics have been low res due to the time it takes to send the higher res shots. Think of just how far Mars is, our iPhone having, wi-fi using instragramming society has I think caused some people to expect too much too soon. They're on Mars, not some remote island on earth. Be patient. What's a "normal" camera anyway?

Curiosity is IN a crater, a gigantic one in fact... at least it's huge to me at 96 miles in diameter. Curiosity landed near Mt. Sharp which rises approximately 18,000 feet above the crater floor. I'm not sure you're ever going to be impressed if you expect much more than landscapes... Sorry but Curiosity is not going to turn a corner and run into a Taco Bell or anything.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


nanu nanu

thanks for answers human

you said

it needs to survive the extremes of space (and of mars)

the "walmart" cameras can be installed into safe robust outer body but this is not important or interesting to talk about.

the seed question was an idea for checking if its possible to grow something in that climate, could been done in many ways for not contaminating the Mars history of plant life

but the interesting thing is the sound of Mars, is it windy there? does Mars have sounds that Earth don't have? alien sounds maybe.

does the rover record movies as well? is there some caves on Mars the rover could explore?
would the rover ever leave the Gale Crater and explore something else like a cave

Originally posted by MorkandMindy
is there some caves on Mars the rover could explore?
would the rover ever leave the Gale Crater and explore something else like a cave

Gale crater is larger than I think you realize. In the middle of the crater, there's a 5km tall mountain. You can see the lower foothills of it in the distance in this picture:



The long term goal of the mission is to go to that mountain, and start climbing it. Should be exciting enough, if you ask me.

reply to post by IamMe14


nanu nanu

I understand the distance is very far for sending high res pictures with many megabytes
the Taco Bell joke was lame hehe

kay-o the Gale Crater is big enough for the rover to drive up and leave it and explore other things, it is possible right? how long are the rover gonna stay in the crater?

why couldn't NASA send up a dog with the rover? to cruel maybe? nah

and I would be impressed if they recorded something with sound.

reply to post by MacAnkka


awesome, I hope the rover finds some caves to explore when they start climbing
if they find something interesting they wouldn't share the full picture with us sheeple

but exciting anyway

We need to keep in mind this is a two year plus mission. We are only days into the mission at this point. Imagine what will be found in two years! With its internal energy source, curiosity will not have the down time as with the previous rover missions. Rumor has it, the BIG mission, possible manned, will be in 2030.

I would have liked to see it investigate the "glass tube/canals" formations, or even closer to either of the Polar Regions. The UFO/Scifi part of me would REALLY like the cydonia region explored; however, that is not the purpose of this mission.

Actually, forget Mars and restart manned missions back to the Moon. I have the romantic idea of mine/science facilities on the Monn. None the less, this was an impressive landing...first of its kind.(hopefully not the last).

Originally posted by bjarneorn
One question, does anyone know if they put a color card on the rover, so they could calibrate the picture correctly? I mean put a "RGB" - card, where it could be photographed, and later used to calibrate the color correctly?

For calibration, they use a sundial. The thumbnail of it can be found here and here.
The calibration is probably not finished. What i see is BGB (brown-green-blue) with weird blue, not RGB.

reply to post by D1ss1dent


They also have a special chart for calibrating the MAHLI, as you can see here.

reply to post by AmatuerSkyWatcher


That's exactly right!!!

I'll be there, with" those guys", with "crazy opinions" about how to set the world right!

While you stand in line to cast your vote, or watch the superbowl, or the next space shuttle liftoff.

Cheering for the activities, games and distractions of those that oppress us!

While Millions of human beings are exterminated.

Oh Well, Hope those pictures are nice!

Enjoy the Game.

Originally posted by MorkandMindy
kay-o the Gale Crater is big enough for the rover to drive up and leave it and explore other things, it is possible right? how long are the rover gonna stay in the crater?

Gale Crater is almost 100 miles in diameter, and is the prime target for Curiosity, because (as I said above) it was perhaps a large lake billions of years ago. The rover may stay inside Gale Crater there all of its life, because there is a lot to see there.

The rover's nominal mission is planned to be 2 years long, but there is no reason that the mission could not be extended if the rover stays healthy (for example, the nominal missions of the twin rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity" was only supposed to be 90 days long, but Opportunity is still roving after eight years).

There is certainly enough stuff inside Gale Crater to keep the rover busy for two years or more.

Here is a picture of just a part of the crater, and some of the interesting stuff to look at:



The fresh craters near the landing site is interesting because part of the ancient bedrock (which may have been the bottom of a lake) may be exposed, rather than had been covered by wind-blown sand over the years. The alluvial fans are interesting because alluvial fans are sediment that were laid down by water that once flowed in the area (probably after the lake dried up). The clay deposits are interesting because clay is only known to be created in very wet environments of neutral water.

Mount Sharp is in the middle of Gale Crater. Orbital images show what look to be walls of exposed layers of strata along the sides of Mt. Sharp. These layers of rock strata are interesting because they may be sediment layers that were laid down by the ancient lake, and maybe were the shorelines of that lake. Geologists can learn a lot about the geological history of that part of Mars from studying this rock strata.


Here is a link to a lecture by Dr. Matt Golombek, who is a NASA/JPL geologist working on the MSL mission, talking about what makes Gale Crater so interesting to science. It's about 1 hour long. The first 37 minutes is basically about why Gale was chosen over the others. The last 22 minutes or so is about what they expect to see once they get there. So if you don't have an hour, and just want to know about the types of science NASA is planning to do at Gale Crater, then just watch the last 22 minutes -- although the first 37 minutes is worthwhile too, if you have the time.

Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Landing Site - Gale Crater

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Very Interesting Soylent.
Watching that video should be mandatory before posting in this thread

Originally posted by drakus
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

Very Interesting Soylent.
Watching that video should be mandatory before posting in this thread

So you watched and posted no questions?

awesome