Quote:
Originally Posted by TrevorW
Well since you asked 
1. Dropped high powered signal relay transmitter/boosters prior to landing
2. Ensured the main camera mast was raised as soon as possible after landing, popped the dust covers as soon as the dust had settled and panned 360 degrees taking images.
4. Made sure all camera lens were all self cleaning
5. Take and store low resolution video to a HD of the descent for relay ASAP
6. ASAP take and transmit still colour images up to 3 mega pixels back home (128000kps) would only take 38.4 seconds per image or thereabouts excluding any time lag
None of which would be impossible nor beyond the autonomous capabilities of the rover
Cheers  |
Trevor, have a read here if you haven't already, most of that is exactly what they are doing:
What to Expect When Curiosity Starts Snapping Pictures
I think this all comes down to what ASAP means. They are getting hi res full colour images in a couple of days. You seem to be disappointed that they are not already here, but I can't really see the difference a day or two makes since we have already waited years for this landing.
Re point 1, that would make no difference since the rover is perfectly capable of communicating directly with Earth - but Earth dipped below the local horizon a few minutes before the landing and thus they relayed through Odyssey.
Re point 6, not sure where you got '128000kps' from, and did you mean 128kbps? A 3MB image takes 3min7.5s @ 128kbps.
In any case the transfer rates are:
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Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Curiosity can communicate with Earth directly in speeds up to 32 kbit/s, but the bulk of the data transfer should be relayed through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey orbiter, which are much more powerful and have better antennas, thus being able to communicate faster with Earth. Data transfer speeds between Curiosity and each orbiter may reach 2 Mbit/s and 256 kbit/s, respectively, but each orbiter is only able to communicate with Curiosity for about 8 minutes per day
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Just to clarify:
1) Humanity have just completed the most complex landing of the largest payload ever on another planet. A completely new landing technique which proved to work flawlessly.
2) Upon landing thumbnail images were immediately relayed to Earth via Odyssey, although NASA expected to only receive these on the second pass 2 hours later.
3) Simultaneously, MRO executed a carefully choreographed maneuver to snap image of the lander hanging from the parachute in the last minute of descent, and even the jettisoned heat shield was visible as a bonus.
4) NASA makes every image freely available as they come in, and all this was paid for by american tax payers, not us.
...And you are not happy?
