Mars Curiosity's first images • Hacker News Board

Re: Mars Curiosity's first images

#151

Post by evincarofautumn » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 4:04 PM UTC

drgath wrote: post #142

tinco wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That the price was 10 billion does not mean the cost was that. They might even make a profit since they sell the sponsorships, broadcasting rights and tickets not to mention the stimulus of the local economy. Sinking 2 billion into something that yields no direct monetary profit, that's a bold move for any country. They did not even sell broadcasting rights!

> Sinking 2 billion into something that yields no direct monetary profit, that's a bold move for any country. Correct that there is no direct return on investment. However, some experts have claimed for every dollar spent on the Apollo program, we got $10 back in public benefit. It's really difficult to measure this stuff accurately, but the point to take away is that there is quite a lot to gained in technology, PR,…

That’s why solving hard technical problems can be a good business move—it’s not necessarily the solutions themselves, but the by-products of creating those solutions that have lasting value.

Re: Mars Curiosity's first images

#152

Post by jlgreco » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 4:20 PM UTC

Deestan wrote: post #90

viraptor wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only works with an Emacs pinky. ;)

For left-CTRL you can often just rest your hand on the CTRL while hitting the key with the index finger. :)

Hard to do if the keys on your laptop keyboard are flush with the palm rest.

Re: Mars Curiosity's first images

#153

Post by mchusma » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 4:25 PM UTC

Interesting quote from NASA about the cost of these images:

“This movie cost you less than seven bucks per American citizen, and look at the excitement we got,” Dr. Elachi said.

Re: Mars Curiosity's first images

#154

Post by dgdg » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 4:28 PM UTC

Looks like the webpage was created by the Mars scientists themselves. They should entrust that job to a web designer.

Re: Mars Curiosity's first images

#155

Post by cutie » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 5:02 PM UTC

dgdg wrote: post #154

Looks like the webpage was created by the Mars scientists themselves. They should entrust that job to a web designer.

Scientists were making web pages when you was in diapers, kid. I was there, working at Rockwell in '94.

Re: Mars Curiosity's first images

#156

Post by steauengeglase » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 5:51 PM UTC

tocomment wrote: post #120

Two billion dollars and they couldn't put a color camera on it :-(

As I understand they do, but even if you had it been deployed seconds after it touched down, the wait for returning images would have been a while. Packet radio from that distance is no joke.

From Earth I'd rather have a few crappy thumbnails to confirm that the vehicle wasn't upside down or something in a few minutes than something National Geographic worthy in a few days.

Re: Mars Curiosity's first images

#157

Post by iamdave » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 5:54 PM UTC

tomjakubowski wrote: post #81

rm999 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the Curiosity team would object to your answer. They've been working on the project for almost a decade, have spent thousands (millions?) of man-hours on it, and have written 500,000 lines of code to control it. The dollar amount that has gone into building it is greater than the value of many fortune 500 companies! There are probably some awesome innovations that came out of such a large project, it's a grea…

Those 500k LOC are just for the EDL. Wonder what they wrote it in, presumably C? http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2012/ju...

I've been hearing (sic: reading) a few folks suggesting actually python. This was in the ##curiosity IRC chat this morning during the landing

Re: Mars Curiosity's first images

#158

Post by nitrogen » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 7:12 PM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #139

I can't help but share the headline in The New Yorker's Fake News & Political Satire section: "Mars Rover Should Not Get So Much Attention, Say Higgs-Boson Scientists."[1] Humor aside, this is a sign that we're living in interesting times: two major human achievements occurring within a few weeks of each other. All I can say is, wow. I love it. -- [1] http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/08...

Extend your time window just a bit, and the number increases to 3:

- Mars rover

- Higss boson

- First commercial docking with ISS

Re: Mars Curiosity's first images

#159

Post by nitrogen » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 7:47 PM UTC

In 3D: http://i.imgur.com/PyxeK.jpg

Edit: colorized version as it might look on Earth, with significant artistic license taken (the Martian sky is less interesting [0]): http://i.imgur.com/oRCVX.jpg (updated with wheel colors)

I've distorted and level adjusted the images to my aesthetic taste, and assembled the rear hazcam images into a stereo pair for RDS-style viewing. Zoom out in your browser or image viewer, get close-ish to the screen, then look through the monitor until the red dots (or any other parts of the images) are in alignment. Continue to zoom in or out until your eyes are somewhat comfortable.

It is a privilege to be one of the first human beings to see this section of Mars in 3D photos.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_surface_color

Re: Mars Curiosity's first images

#160

Post by noselasd » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 7:48 PM UTC

joshwa wrote: post #35

joering2 wrote: post #13

I took those during landing sequence.. http://i45.tinypic.com/353eemc.jpg http://i46.tinypic.com/ej95s5.png http://i49.tinypic.com/2qicoqq.png http://i50.tinypic.com/2hd8j13.png edit: its just fun to watch those. also, according to NASA there is 500,000 lines of code behind those 38 steps.. would love to see some parts of it!

That is the first time I've seen a real-life useful computer display actually look like something they dream up in the movies. (counterexamples welcome!)

Public version of that software is here: http://eyes.nasa.gov/