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First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

nasa.gov

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Re: First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

#141

Post by freehunter »

seanalltogether wrote: post #57
rwhitman wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I think Venus is the more interesting planet to be exploring

I wonder if eating away at the current atmosphere of venus is more or less technically challenging then the task of creating an atmosphere from scratch on Mars. Since Venus also has way more mass, I'm guessing humans would feel more comfortable there then on Mars.

Building an atmosphere on Mars would surely be more of a challenge than on Venus, since Mars doesn't have a magnetosphere to keep solar winds from blowing the gases away.

Re: First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

#142

Post by jcarreiro »

lerouxb wrote: post #132
yread wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> survive the 9 MPa and 450 C on the surface on Venus not even mentioning the sulfur acid rains, lead sulfide snow and lack of magnetic field (cosmic rays penetrating atmosphere if it would be weakened)

Doesn't mars also lack a magnetic field?

  > Doesn't mars also lack a magnetic field?
Yes, that's correct. There is no global dipole magnetic field on Mars [1]. However there are weak fields "frozen" into some of the oldest rocks on Mars [2], which indicates that the planet did have a global magnetic field at some point in its early history. Scientists think that the lack of a global magnetic field was part of the reason that Mars lost its atmosphere. [3]

For humans to settle on Mars and stay for any length of time, we will need to find a way to shield ourselves from the ionizing radiation that reaches the surface. [4] On Earth, most of this radiation is either deflected by the global magnetic field, or absorbed by the atmosphere.

[1] http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/russell/papers/mars_m...

[2] http://cmex.ihmc.us/data/catalog/TectonismonMars/Paleomagnet...

[3] http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/as...

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Mars#Radiation

Re: First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

#143

Post by jcarreiro »

zerostar07 wrote: post #134

Another random question: In pictures like this: http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/800px-Op... the rover is in a clean chamber, with the staff wearing suits. Why is the clean chamber needed for assembly?

This is part of NASA's Planetary Protection directive [1]. Their goal is to ensure that we do not inadvertently contaminate the pristine environments that we visit with our spacecraft. If we did, we would be destroying an invaluable scientific resource!

They are also responsible for ensuring that samples returned to Earth from outer space are handled safely.

[1] http://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov

Re: First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

#144

Post by saraid216 »

freehunter wrote: post #140
wang2bo2 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely, with little gravity it could even be impossible for women to bear and give birth to a child

I'm unfamiliar with how gravity factors into pregnancy and birthing. Do you have any further details on that?

I found this: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=702

Re: First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

#145

Post by tomfakes »

Wingman4l7 wrote: post #118
tomfakes wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to mention Don - he's a friend of a friend - and the book he's writing about the Russian Venus program. There's a lot of awesome stuff here that almost no-one knows about.

His series of pages on the Venera program[1] just blows all other resources away, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. He mentions on his copyright page[2] that he studied Russian books/papers, befriended & interviewed Russian scientists, dug up rare photographs, and even processed original spacecraft data with custom C++ code to create some of the images! I look forward to his book; does he have an ETA on the pu…

All his friends are pestering him about when he's releasing this book - he's under no pressure to publish and rather enjoys the process of digging up all this stuff and writing the code to process these images.

Re: First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

#146

Post by sgt101 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #139
sgt101 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My child. In the past years, while your mother played in the sunlight and your father smiled at girls and drank cool drafts as the evening drew in, before you were even a glimmer or a sunbeam, we had devices called "film cameras". These "film cameras" did not have electronic components. They worked by using levers, springs and wheels. An emulsion that is reactive to light was prepared and pasted onto a plastic film.…

I thought that one of the things that led to the discovery of radiation was an accidental exposure of photographic film by x-rays.

Yay, yay and verily. Forsooth though it is time to rely on sciencey things.

http://ston.jsc.nasa.gov/collections/TRS/_techrep/CR188427.p...

Wherein the effects of radiation on films is documented. The answer is that some damage occurs, but films are fogged only by extreme conditions such as those that STS-31 got hit by. I don't know what steps were taken by apollo to protect films, but I would not be surprised if some protection was used to prevent excessive damage.

Also I would point out that Apollo missions were 8 days in length while the martian missions are 9 mths long (if they smash into Mars at 13k kmph) or hopefully 24 mths + long if they work - hence the serious need for hardening.

Anyway - if you like don't believe in it all - the rest of us are happy looking at the photos, data and science and enjoying the general idea. You can believe in invisible pink unicorns or ghosts or something instead if you like! (we don't mind)

Re: First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

#147

Post by vacri »

zerostar07 wrote: post #134

Another random question: In pictures like this: http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/800px-Op... the rover is in a clean chamber, with the staff wearing suits. Why is the clean chamber needed for assembly?

Hollywood movies to the contrary, archeological research is very concerned with avoiding contaminating the subject with crap from the researchers. Imagine if life was found on mars... and we introduced the diseases that killed it.

Re: First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

#148

Post by kamaal »

tomkit wrote: post #56

Random tangent, but I wonder what procedures NASA goES through to scrub all living organisms from the robot itself if one of their aims is to see if they can detect life on the martian planet.

On the same lines.

Why can't we send some robust organic life to Mars and dump it there, Just to see what happens?

Re: First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

#149

Post by hnriot »

thechut wrote: post #105
flippyhead wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, it was easier to do on a sound stage.

While I'm guessing this is in jest. All of these hardening necessary raises a lot of question about the legitimacy of the older photos.

Not at all, the hardening is for electronic components, the Hasselblad camera is all mechanical. The astronauts would have had to store the film in lead lined containers, but they had the advantage of bring the films back with them. Curiosity has to rely in electronics to get the images back to earth because it's staying there.

Re: First full-resolution images of the Martian surface

#150

Post by brucardoso2 »

Two9A wrote: post #128
H_L wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While yes, the full color image I posted was re-compiled from the original red, green, and blue channel images sent from the rover by a non-NASA source, even NASA's B&W images look better back then than they do now. I made an image to illustrate this: http://f.cl.ly/items/0k2w2d1C1O3w3e0t300f/NASAQualityDegreda...

Remember that the images we have from Curiosity so far are from the navigational guidance cameras, though. The heavy equipment hasn't been fired up yet. If I recall, the Mastcam will take a panoramic colour view later today, and that'll take a few days to download. Then we'll have a proper image, for the first time.

Here is the panaromic view from Mastcam. But as you can see by image's description, we're all still waiting for the big picture though! Excerpt from [1]: "As engaging as this color panorama is, it is important to note this is only one-eighth the potential resolution of images from this camera." [1]http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120809.html
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