composite panorama of phoenix lander site

full resolution

Is that the white mysterious object we've been discussing? Does anyone know if we'll be getting better resolution images?

I did some tweaking & it ended up looking like a full fledge obelisk...



[edit on 31-5-2008 by reject]

Thank you for sharing it here

No, i'd say that it's not the same anomaly:
it's exactly on the same line of the parachute,

while the anomaly is in the almost opposite direction:

strangely, i cant see it here:
so maybe it was actually some image artifact no longer visible in the photos taken after the first one: i know that they had to take some more photos.
Another very important step would be to get the uncropped version of
PSP_008591_2485
hirise.lpl.arizona.edu...
the only available versions are crop.

reply to post by internos
If its an image artifact its an image artifact.

What are the chances NASA has dedicated supercomputers to filter out anomalous images they get from space? Could computer programs be written to identify these and airbrush them out?

Even the best supercomputer programs could miss something so all we'd have are dismissible image artifacts. That would really suck.

Thanks.

reply to post by internos


Great work on mapping out the 'anomalies' and jettisoned hardware Internos. Sterling work as per usual. I wish YOU were running NASA mate! LOL!

Has NASA set a date for the release of the hi-res images yet or are they releasing them already? I haven't been following that closely lately.

I guess I don't expect too much to come from this mission.. just lots of pictures of rocks coupled with ambiguous scientific results... and anomalies no one can prove either way unless we're physically on the planet ourselves.

Why don't they (NASA) just send over some hardware that can actually prove ancient/current microbial life one way or another. It seems to be a deliberately slow process that just swallows money that could be better spent on getting definitive results. Yes - I am disillusioned!

Personally I think it's just a ad hock way to keep themselves in long term employment. I kind of get the feeling that they don't really want to find evidence of the afore mentioned 'life'. Water will do for now - which we all 'know' is there anyway!

In short NASA is becoming (or has become) a failed venture - until they provide something more substantial and worthy of tax payers dollars. I truly hope they surprise everyone and in the process, prove me wrong!

IRM

[edit on 3/6/08 by InfaRedMan]

reply to post by InfaRedMan


Hi my friend:
basically this mission could be able to cover something of what you mentioned:

Objective 1: Study the History of Water in All its Phases
Currently, water on Mars' surface and atmosphere exists in two states: gas and solid. At the poles, the interaction between the solid water ice at and just below the surface and the gaseous water vapor in the atmosphere is believed to be critical to the weather and climate of Mars. Phoenix will be the first mission to collect meteorological data in the Martian arctic needed by scientists to accurately model Mars' past climate and predict future weather processes.

Liquid water does not currently exist on the surface of Mars, but evidence from Mars Global Surveyor, Odyssey and Exploration Rover missions suggest that water once flowed in canyons and persisted in shallow lakes billions of years ago. However, Phoenix will probe the history of liquid water that may have existed in the arctic as recently as 100,000 years ago. Scientists will better understand the history of the Martian arctic after analyzing the chemistry and mineralogy of the soil and ice using robust instruments.

Objective 2: Search for Evidence of Habitable Zone and Assess the Biological Potential of the Ice-Soil Boundary
Recent discoveries have shown that life can exist in the most extreme conditions. Indeed, it is possible that bacterial spores can lie dormant in bitterly cold, dry, and airless conditions for millions of years and become activated once conditions become favorable. Such dormant microbial colonies may exist in the Martian arctic, where due to the periodic wobbling of the planet, liquid water may exist for brief periods about every 100,000 years making the soil environment habitable.

Phoenix will assess the habitability of the Martian northern environment by using sophisticated chemical experiments to assess the soil's composition of life-giving elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and hydrogen. Identified by chemical analysis, Phoenix will also look at reduction-oxidation (redox) molecular pairs that may determine whether the potential chemical energy of the soil can sustain life, as well as other soil properties critical to determine habitability such as pH and saltiness.

Despite having the proper ingredients to sustain life, the Martian soil may also contain hazards that prevent biological growth, such as powerful oxidants that break apart organic molecules. Powerful oxidants that can break apart organic molecules are expected in dry environments bathed in UV light, such as the surface of Mars. But a few inches below the surface, the soil could protect organisms from the harmful solar radiation. Phoenix will dig deep enough into the soil to analyze the soil environment potentially protected from UV looking for organic signatures and potential habitability.

www.nasa.gov...

Now, who really knows what's their real purpose, but i have to say that i find the instrumentation to be absolutely consistent with the mission's purpose.
Yes, i'd love to see the whole planet mapped and covered both with Hirise and Rovers images, but if we quikly look at the status of their approx. coverage

Hirise status

Rovers status

then we have an idea about how little is the area covered so far.
For scientists, at this point, the hi res imageering seems to be at the bottom of the list, but the project is still going.
I'm confident that it will be a matter of time.

[edit on 3/6/2008 by internos]

reply to post by internos


Great Follow-up Internos,

There's some really good information you have provided there. I don't know if I'm reading into the text too deeply but all this talk of Habitable Zones makes me think about the old "Mars Direct Project", (which incidentally, I hope still has some life in it - pardon the pun). i.e - not exclusively looking for microbial life but possibly places where we could eventually start successful colonies ourselves.

I've been thinking about the possibilities of aquifers on Mars that could be meters below the soil - not so much at the poles but probably closer to the equator where the climate would be more conducive to water maintaining liquid form in the stored warmth below the Martian surface.

One can only wonder what we would find if we had a lander capable of drilling 10+ meters down. Surely the geysers we believe we are seeing lend some credence to such a search?

Anyway, glad to be back and completely thrilled that you have your own section on the board. Well done mate and so well deserved!

IRM

reply to post by reject


Thank you reject for sharing the panorama view of the Phoenix Lander. Yes I truly believe NASA has a program that masks or places a veil over images of anomalies they do not want us to see.

I was able to penetrate the veil in certain sections in the panorama photo close to the Lander and see humanoid lifeforms. I was also able to bend or stretch the background image to further see anomalies including a Gerber looking humanoid baby.

Most have not been able to see these things because they must first look at the photo as though it was a piece of 3D holographic art. In other words look very deep into the photo adjusting the brightness and contrast slightly and using tunnel vision as I have described in other posts to see these anomalies.
Rik Riley

reply to post by InfaRedMan


Here's some more interesting stuff from one of my old threads:

16 November 2007
The European Mars Science & Exploration Conference: Mars Express and ExoMars has just concluded.

We present interviews with selected experts on the hot topic: Mars and the search for traces of life.

Jean-Pierre Bibring

Mars Express OMEGA Principal Investigator and ExoMars Microscope co-Team Coordinator, Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, France
Subjects: Mars mineralogy and surface water evolution
Read interview transcript

Agustin Chicarro

Mars Express Project Scientist, ESA-ESTEC, Netherlands
Subjects: Mars Express mission and science overview, Mars geology and planetary evolution
Read interview transcript

Roberto Orosei

Roberto OROSEI, Ma_Miss infra-red spectrometer (ExoMars drill) Team, Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (IASF), Italy
Subjects: Exomars drill operations & subsurface mineralogy
Read interview transcript

John Parnell

ExoMars Life Marker Chip Science Team and Associate Scientist for ExoMars Raman-LIBS Team, University of Aberdeen, UK
Subjects: Exobiology and biomarkers
Read interview transcript

Jeffrey Plaut

Mars Express MARSIS co-Principal Investigator, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA
Subjects: Martian subsurface sounding, underground water inventory
Read interview transcript

Jorge Vago

ExoMars Project Scientist, ESA-ESTEC, Netherlands
Subjects: ExoMars mission and science overview, Martian space environment
Read interview transcript

Frances Westall

ExoMars Microscope co-Team Coordinator, CNRS, France
Subjects: Exobiology, origin of life during planetary history, extreme environments
Read interview transcript

Source:
www.esa.int...


This is some amazing stuff to read, it makes you feel closer to them and to their work.
I hope you will enjoy the interviews, my friend

reply to post by internos


Hey thanks for those links Internos. Very keen to spend some time this weekend going through them!!!

IMR