Rolf maybe I'm expecting to much from NASA and $2.5 billion, regardless I'm not the only one making similar analogies
That article is just stating the facts as we've already talked about here, and then some other media apparently didn't realise that either. How does that reflect bad on NASA? What is it you would have done differently?
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
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
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:
Quote:
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
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?
I have noticed on various sites that many people are disatisfied with the images from curiosity. I guess that has to do with the age we live in, we need instant gratification of the senses.
NASA as usual has done a stirling job; despite a severly restricted budget. It delivered an expensive, heavy, high-tech science platform to another planet seemingly faultlessly. It is not asking to much to let the tech guys check if everything is OK before blazing away with the images.
NASA takes great strides in sharing the information it gathers with the general public. I have recently been on the NASA website to look at the imagery from the Opportunity Rover (still going strong), and the images, which are high resolution, are available to the public free of charge not to mention video and audio. The same goes for ESA.
I have noticed on various sites that many people are disatisfied with the images from curiosity. I guess that has to do with the age we live in, we need instant gratification of the senses.
NASA as usual has done a stirling job; despite a severly restricted budget. It delivered an expensive, heavy, high-tech science platform to another planet seemingly faultlessly. It is not asking to much to let the tech guys check if everything is OK before blazing away with the images.
NASA takes great strides in sharing the information it gathers with the general public. I have recently been on the NASA website to look at the imagery from the Opportunity Rover (still going strong), and the images, which are high resolution, are available to the public free of charge not to mention video and audio. The same goes for ESA.
Like Trevor says a small amount of video from the rover would have been great but also an alternative I would have thought that NASA would have been very keen to capture would be taken from the Sky Crane itself showing the tethered lowering of the rover, touch down and fly away from the crane.
We all know how small cameras can be made these days that give very good quality video and who says all this data has to come back via one data link.
One would assume they have at least a double redundancy if not triple.
Do you honestly think they would rely on a single link, I think not.
Anyway this is all getting a bit silly banging on at each other.
Some very cool images coming down right now. I just stitched together two navcam images. Look at those jagged mountains on the horizon, several kms tall! I've always wanted to see that on Mars It's certainly a more interesting location than the traditional semi flat plains.
And they will get heaps better still. The one above is just from the navigation camera on the mast. They haven't flexed the muscles of the big main colour camera yet... This mission will simply be spectacular
Be interesting to know what sort of surface conditions Curiosity was in when this photo was taken - temperature, time of (martian) day etc.
Anyone know?
Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyViking
Some very cool images coming down right now. I just stitched together two navcam images. Look at those jagged mountains on the horizon, several kms tall! I've always wanted to see that on Mars It's certainly a more interesting location than the traditional semi flat plains.
Some very cool images coming down right now. I just stitched together two navcam images. Look at those jagged mountains on the horizon, several kms tall! I've always wanted to see that on Mars It's certainly a more interesting location than the traditional semi flat plains.
This is soooo cool. We're in for a treat with this mission I reckon.
There was some discussion on that over on UMSF forums immediately after the landing. It appears quite logical that it could be the dust cloud from the crashing skycrane, but what a lucky shot if it is It's definitely not dust on the lens cover because it appears in both the left and right views.
It's definitely not dust on the lens cover because it appears in both the left and right views.
