Orbiter captures probe's Mars descent

I know this should be in the Breaking news forum but i think it deserves to be here more,

Apparently Mars Orbiter snapped a picture of Phoenix on its decent, the picture isnt fantastic, but when blown up i think it will be spectacular, if someone can blow it up, could you paste it on here please?

Link to the news story

Im sure there will be a better source out there.







AZZ

[edit on 26/5/2008 by azzllin]

The pictures you posted isn't the one of Phoenix descending. Your pic was released before the landing and shows the area they were aiming to land at (and did). This is the pic showing the lander descending with it's parachute deployed.



from NASA JPS web site

In that case what is the orange splodge in the middle of the picture? the picture stated it was released by Nasa , if it isnt of the decent what is it? the object looks to be burning to me? and im sure it it was to depict the landing zone the splodge would have been bigger.

Im not saying your wrong, seems a bit strange to me that they released that picture with the news the probe had been snapped.. Interesting.


Can anyone shed anymore light on this?

[edit on 27/5/2008 by azzllin]

reply to post by azzllin

---

It's a marking showing where they intended to land, like a "laser pointer" style marking. Add in some jpg compression artifacts and you have your "orange splodge." The other picture showing the lander actually landing is incredible. Great job NASA!

As stated above, yes, the orange dot is the middle of where they were aiming for the lander to land. And as I stated, that pic you posted was released well before the lander made it's final touchdown...it was your news source (Yahoo UK) that chose to run that picture with the story, and they actually caption the pic accordingly, saying the image showed where the lander was supposed to land (they have now changed the picture that accompanies the story by the way).

reply to post by sensfan

---

The orbiter is supposed to be HRISE isn't it?

I don't see anything Hi Res. about this, why so?

Can you imagine the types of calculations necessary to use a camera on an orbiting spacecraft, wherever it was in its orbit and speed, to nail a photograph of another spacecraft on its special trajectory/speed on its entry into the martain atmosphere, and then throw in that fact that there is a automatic delay in the tranfer of data between Earth and Mars. Those HiRise guys are good...impressive. That math had to be perfect.

Here's a newly released pic of Phoenix descending....amazing picture!

Phoenix descends

I didn't realize they dropped into a crater. I saw pictures of the horizon posted? It did not seem to be a crater. Where did those come from?


DISREGARD - I stopped being lazy and checked the site... duh

[edit on 27-5-2008 by Maxmars]

It didnt drop into a crater. That crater could be hundreds of miles in the background with the orbiter 20-30 miles from the surface still. It could of travelled a few hundred miles further down range from that crater.

This amazing image was captured as Phoenix came in for its Mars landing on May 25, 2008. The HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed at Phoenix, which is seen here against the background of a 10-kilometer-diameter crater called Heimdall. The dramatic view makes it appear that Phoenix is falling into the crater, but in fact Phoenix was 20 kilometers closer to HiRISE than Heimdall, and it landed nowhere near the crater. The photo was taken 20 seconds after Phoenix' parachute opened. Credit: NASA / JPL / U. Arizona

[edit on 27-5-2008 by Rapacious]

[edit on 27-5-2008 by Rapacious]

According to the Project spokesman on CNN this afternoon, the image of it entering into a crater is an optical illusion due to the perspective of the MRO when it took the photo. He assured the press during the conference that it did not land in the crater, that it was still far above it at the time the MRO snapped the shot.

I dont know where to find the video at present because it was a live CNN stream at the time. It may not have been archived yet.



[edit on 27-5-2008 by Lost_Mind]

reply to post by sensfan

---

Think on this, and think on it carefully: you are seeing a manmade object falling gracefully and with intent to the surface of an alien world, as seen by another manmade object already circling that world, both of them acting robotically, and both of them hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

Never, ever forget: we did this. This is what we can do.

reply to post by azzllin

---

I see there is a parachute but I thought this was a rocket thruster powered decent?????

I have attached a link to the JPL image of the orbiter on mars
jpl image

They mention the parachute is in the image and the only thing i see is a dark smudge in bottom right corber of picture.

someone clear this up pleae

thanks

did you even attempt to find any information for yourself? - theres tons of computer simulations showing the entry , descent & landing. Theres also footage showing them testing the parachute on earth-

The parachute is jettisoned at 1000 meters the thrusters do the rest from there.