Lander Zeroes in On Martian North Pole

i dont get it
its landed in a more or less barren region of mars
theres suposed to be loaods of hilly areas and stuff, why not there,
i mean look on those pics it looks likes hundreds of miles of flat barren wasteland, dont think theres any caves/holes hiding civilisations around there

I watched the broadcast all night, and it sure was worth it. Didn't realy expect to be able to download pictures so soon after touchdown. Nice one realy!

reply to post by elibubbles


They landed in a spot that they expect to find water-ice under the surface of the soil. They plan to collect this ice/soil mixture and analyze it.

The places that Spirit and Opportunity are may be prettier to look at, but the soil there is dry (as far as scientists can tell).



[edit on 5/25/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

Cool , they are updating new images every minutes... lots are interesting.
But look like its a little hard to find life there...

There is some images with a tall white thing very faraway...

here is another pic from phoenix.

What is that reflecting light in the background ?





Could just be an artifact from the lens or transmission. I wonder what NASA is going to say about it.

What do you guys think???

reply to post by 1freelectron


You mean this?



I dont know. Could be a part of the lander?

reply to post by itisibrian


Yes. sorry I could not get the image to post.

Could that be from the heat shield?

[edit on 25-5-2008 by 1freelectron]

reply to post by 1freelectron


It's a possibility. Wait till mikesingh sees this.

Originally posted by itisibrian
reply to post by 1freelectron

 

You mean this?

I dont know. Could be a part of the lander?

Which image are you looking at because I don't see it in any of the thumbnails.

Originally posted by itisibrian
reply to post by 1freelectron

 

You mean this?

I dont know. Could be a part of the lander?

It looks like a camera artifact, seeing how the top of it is so purely white.

here is the original..

click to enlarge



files.abovetopsecret.com...


Let's watch the image sizes, please.


Mod Note: Image Size – Please Review This Link.
All images must remain at or below 680 pixels wide/tall



[edit on 25-5-2008 by Jbird]

Sweet!

Obviously expecting...

Raw Images from Robotic Arm Camera

Raw Images from Optical Microscope

www.nasa.gov...

(scroll down)

[edit on 25-5-2008 by Jbird]

Um....has NASA ever heard of color photos? I mean they did install some type of hi res digital COLOR camera right?

Seriously, anything NASA shows us is pure BS in my opinion. This is no exception. I don't think we will ever see any true images of anything in our solar system as long as NASA is at the helm.

This is just to show the taxpayers what they are spending the taxpayers money on. Just to think that money could be spent on say saving starving people in 3rd world countries (or even their own).

NASA is a farce.

Z

reply to post by Jbird


That's cool Jbird -- Do you expect we will see these robotic arm and microscope photos soon, or do you think that place holder will stay for a while (hours?, days?) until they turn on those instruments?

even newer pics seem to be in, as the nasa team on the webcast seem to be really excited and running around, cant wait to see

reply to post by watchZEITGEISTnow


There is no such thing as a "true color" digital camera. We WILL see the approximate true color images that will be created from these black and white images eventually.

Read this earlier post of mine that explains how NASA creates the color images from these raw black and white images -- black and white images that are photographed through different filters to get different light intensities:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 5/25/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

The raw images from Spirit and Opportunity are also black and white when first received, but they are eventually converted into "approximate true color images". It will take a little time for the imaging scientists to turn these raw images into color images, but we WILL see approximate true color images eventually.

Yea, the approximate true color of mars that they want us to see.
Doing it like this they can guaranty that we only see the colors of Mars that they want us to see, instead of the true colors, blueish sky and a surface that isnt exactly red but more earth looking.
I doubt that transmitting color would add to much more to the data size.

I was going through some of the pics released and found a couple..
well. mars things.. :-D

the sphere on the left appears to have a shadow...

fawkes4.lpl.arizona.edu...


img262.imageshack.us...



[edit on 5/25/2008 by KATSUO]

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


The way things are going, I'd say they will happen relatively soon. Days or less.

I'm just amazed at how well this mission is proceeding.

I thought I heard them discussing testing the arm as soon as the base tests were done during one of the NASA TV lead-up briefings.

Originally posted by Kr0n0s

The raw images from Spirit and Opportunity are also black and white when first received, but they are eventually converted into "approximate true color images". It will take a little time for the imaging scientists to turn these raw images into color images, but we WILL see approximate true color images eventually.

Yea, the approximate true color of mars that they want us to see.
Doing it like this they can guaranty that we only see the colors of Mars that they want us to see, instead of the true colors, blueish sky and a surface that isnt exactly red but more earth looking.
I doubt that transmitting color would add to much more to the data size.

This is the way its ALWAYS done -- even in your own digital camera...the only difference is the CMOS or CCD computer is part of your digital camera...NASA just gets the different raw images (with different light intesities photographed through different filters) and uses computers here on Earth to discern and identify the actual colors.

Your digital camera is as color blind as this landers's camera -- they both need a computer to "guess at" the color