Quote:
Originally Posted by PCH
Gary et al,
to me, those pics make Mars seem so much closer. Eerily 'close' in fact.
I remember when the first moon shots came out, being able to see individual small rocks and bits of gravel on the ground for the first time had me thinking the same thing then - just how 'close' the moon had become now that we could see this quality of detail.
And now here we are, able to see this incredibly fine detail on Mars. The landscape and atmosphere look spookily similar to parts of our own planet. And yet it's all that distance away. Just awesome to ponder on the scope of it ....
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Hi Paul,
I know exactly what you mean.
Firstly, I remember listening to the NASA commentary of the Viking 1 landing
in July 1976 being broadcast "live" on shortwave by the Voice of America.
Because of the 14 minute light-time delay from Mars, one didn't know whether
it had either crashed or successfully landed because the speed of light is as
fast as the information could be conveyed.
It struck me at the time as philosophically significant because it was the first time
in most of our lives that the fate of something we cared about which had already in fact occurred
can't be known instantaneously because of the finite speed of light. Of course, when
we wave to each other across a room, we experience a light-time delay of
around 3.3 nanoseconds per meter, but humanly we don't notice it and we
thus get the illusion that everything is happening in the same "real-time" time-frame.
Secondly, the university library had a subscription to NASA journals and many
a spare hour was spent reading them when I probably should have been
completing the next assignment.
One of the publications was SP-425 "The Martian Landcape". It included pictures
from Viking 1 and Viking 2. At the back there were some 3D stereo pairs.
Inside the back cover of the publication there was an envelope with a fold-out stereo
viewer (what a great book!). I remember the sense of awe and wonder when
I fused the images for the first time and there I was looking at this rocky landscape
on another world. With each passing second as I stared at it, more and more
"snapped" into place and I felt like I was "there".
As the authors of SP-425 wrote -
Quote:
Originally Posted by "The Viking Imaging Team
Some persons can appreciate the stereoscopic effect much more easily than others. There is, however, one fairly reliable guide to the viewer's success. If, as he peers through the stereoscope, you ask him if he sees the third dimension and he responds noncommittally "yes," then you know he has not. Wait a few minutes and you will hear an exclamation of surprise and wonder. Then you will know he has seen it. The effect is so unusual, literally drawing you into the scene, that very few people come upon it without excitement.
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Yet here was a world that was also in some ways familiar. It struck me how
common rocks must be throughout the universe. You could pick them up,
throw them or bang them together just like here.
I remember leaving the library like I had undergone some epiphany. As I looked
around, everyone else was just going about their day-to-day lives, but I had
just visited another world.
"SP-425 The Martian Landscape" by the Viking Landing Imaging team is available
online here -
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-425/contents.htm
Those stereo pairs appear in it here -
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-425/ch41.htm