StarHalo
Flashaholic
Successful touchdown at 10:14:39 PM PDT; the first 256-pixel image sent moments later from the rover hazard camera reveals the late Martian afternoon sky contrasting with one of Curiosity's wheels on the dusty surface:
NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Lands
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StarHalo
Flashaholic
Rear hazard cam moments later, more time to send a higher-res image; Curiosity sees its shadow:
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StarHalo
Flashaholic
Lots of dust kicked up from the rocket-powered landing:
Also, happy birthday Neil Armstrong, quite a present!
Also, happy birthday Neil Armstrong, quite a present!
blasterman
Flashlight Enthusiast
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Silhouette / second shot does look strikingly similiar to the teaser trailer from the first Transformers movie. 
HighlanderNorth
Flashlight Enthusiast
Does this thing have a windshield wiper and some windshield wiper fluid? I remember the pictures from the previous rover that were clear, and colored. Is this going to get better in time?
StarHalo
Flashaholic
Yep, the initial pictures are just low-res snaps from the front and rear hazard cams, they're not even using the main imaging cameras yet, which will be high-def and color. The dust is from the landing; the rockets kicked up a huge amount of dust which has probably made quite a mess on the exposed parts of the rover, including the low-mounted hazard cams. Expect some National Geographic-grade images to be forthcoming once the rover's main antenna is up.
Slazmo
Enlightened
one would think that from todays technology that the 'low res' camera's would be at least 1Mp - my nokia e63 has a better low res capture than that on a billion dollar rover?
StarHalo
Flashaholic
And an iPhone has more processing power than the rover too; gotta remember NASA is all about cheapest and most durable to get the job done simply. The hazard cams aren't impressive by cell phone standards, but they'll work faultlessly through a rocket launch, many months in space, a 12 G reentry, and then two years on Mars, and they were probably cheaper than your phone..
StarHalo
Flashaholic
How's this for high-res: One robot photographs the other - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snaps Mars Curiosity's massive parachute landing:
And here's our first color image from the ground:
And here's our first color image from the ground:
I don't think windscreen wipers would work on Mars
remember temps and conditions are extreme
they range from −17.2 °C (1.0 °F) to −107 °C (−161 °F) where the rover is and it gets worse at the poles
then theres the atmosphere isn't it severly caustic
remember temps and conditions are extreme
they range from −17.2 °C (1.0 °F) to −107 °C (−161 °F) where the rover is and it gets worse at the poles
then theres the atmosphere isn't it severly caustic
Gunner12
Flashaholic
I don't think the martial atmosphere is caustic, according to wikipedia, it's mostly CO2 with some nitrogen and argon. The dust probably gets everywhere, so wipers will probably stop working after they get clogged up. They might have some slippery material on the lens so dust doesn't stick.
The stuff on the rover isn't crazy advanced. The electronics have to survive the unpredictable environment of space, one solar storm might be able to fry the electronics in the rover when it was in space. The electronics are meant to be durable in unpredictable environments, plus, if they can get the data off the rover and transmitted back to earth, the number crunching can be done on substantially more powerful server farms and super computers.
StarHalo, that picture of Curiosity's parachute is really cool!
The stuff on the rover isn't crazy advanced. The electronics have to survive the unpredictable environment of space, one solar storm might be able to fry the electronics in the rover when it was in space. The electronics are meant to be durable in unpredictable environments, plus, if they can get the data off the rover and transmitted back to earth, the number crunching can be done on substantially more powerful server farms and super computers.
StarHalo, that picture of Curiosity's parachute is really cool!
HighlanderNorth
Flashlight Enthusiast
Well, what happened was, in this time of fiscal restraint, the budget for NASA has been reduced, and the cost of the rover was over budget, so they had run out of money for a camera, so when I heard about this, I decided to donate my old cell phone from 2004 with camera, and they taped it to the front of the rover, which is the source of these early pictures. Thats why the resolution is lower than in your cell phone, because the phone/camera I gave them was older. LOL
I would imagine that the later pictures will be great. The previous rover(s) sent back some fantastic imagery, and you'd have to0 think that the camera technology since then has only gotten better, so the final pictures should be nice.
I guess I could just look this up, but does anyone know anything about the area of Mars that they sent this rover to? Are there supposedly any special features at that area?
HarryN
Flashlight Enthusiast
I read a news article on-line about the site selection process. My understanding is that one reason for that site selection is that it has a high chance of having exposed layers, similar on concept to what is seen in the Grand Canyon. The mountain peak there is quite tall - something like 3 miles I think.
blasterman
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Your cell phone signal doesn't have to travel a couple hundred million miles to be captured by earth stations, so we're not exactly talking '4G' here. Still, immediately after the rover landed it was transmitting thumbnails live to the JPL team, which if you think about it is a lot faster than my Android phone given Sprint's lousy coverage :ironic:
Actually the gear on the rover is very advanced, but has to be built to the limits of engineering fault tolerance. Images and data is stored on board the rover and the transmitted at ideal times, with no risk of data corruption, so data management is just as critical as data aquisition. When the Galieo probe had problems with it's high gain antenna the mission engineers had to come up with riduculous solutions to keep the mission going, and all subsequent space missions have adjusted for worst case scenarios.
The Spirit and Opportunity rovers have taken striking images of the Martian landscapes, with most of the better ones being pano stitches similiar to what I do with my dSLR. The coolest images were the swirling dust devils in motion, so we can expect some cool stuff from Curiousity. A big difference with Curiousity is it's RPG powered -vs- solar for Spirit / Oppurtunity.
Actually the gear on the rover is very advanced, but has to be built to the limits of engineering fault tolerance. Images and data is stored on board the rover and the transmitted at ideal times, with no risk of data corruption, so data management is just as critical as data aquisition. When the Galieo probe had problems with it's high gain antenna the mission engineers had to come up with riduculous solutions to keep the mission going, and all subsequent space missions have adjusted for worst case scenarios.
The Spirit and Opportunity rovers have taken striking images of the Martian landscapes, with most of the better ones being pano stitches similiar to what I do with my dSLR. The coolest images were the swirling dust devils in motion, so we can expect some cool stuff from Curiousity. A big difference with Curiousity is it's RPG powered -vs- solar for Spirit / Oppurtunity.
PhotonWrangler
Flashaholic
Flying Turtle
Flashaholic
I've heard a couple times that the pics are fuzzy now because the cams still have lens caps in place. Guess they're waiting for the dust to settle. Wonder if that Mickey D's out there has a drive through?
Geoff
Geoff
StarHalo
Flashaholic
Curiosity's landing assembly left enough of a mess without the McDonalds..
HighlanderNorth
Flashlight Enthusiast
You say it's RPG powered..... How exactly does it derive energy from a rocket propelled grenade? Maybe it fires a grenade into the ground, and the ensuing explosion propels it forward? LOL
