Mars rover sends back 1st 360-degree color view

[ScienceRocks]

Mars rover sends back 1st 360-degree color view
August 9, 2012
Mars rover sends back 1st 360-degree color view

This is the first 360-degree panorama in color of the Gale Crater landing site taken by NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. In the next few days, the software on Curiosity will be optimized for surface operation. Image: NASA

The Curiosity rover has returned another postcard from Mars — the first 360-degree color view from Gale Crater.


Since landing Sunday night, NASA's six-wheel rover has been sending home a trickle of pictures, beginning with grainy, black-and-white photos. It also beamed back a low-quality video showing the last few minutes of its descent to the surface.

Click on the link to make it enlarge!
http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/1-marsroversen.jpg

 

[ScienceRocks]

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/images/pia16034fixed_Malin_blast1-br2.jpg

8.09.2012
A Set of Blast Marks in Color, Left Side
This cut-out from a color panorama image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover shows the effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground. It comes from the left side of the thumbnail panorama obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera. (See PIA16029.)

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA’s Curiosity expecting dust storms on surface of Mars soon
NASA’s Curiosity expecting dust storms on surface of Mars soon - SlashGear

The Curiosity rover was sent to Mars to document a lot of different things, but one of the things it will be examining on are the weather patterns on the surface of Mars. Today NASA tells USA Today that it’s expecting mostly clear – if not a bit chilly – conditions on the red planet, with NASA scientist Manuel de la Torre saying that Curiosity can expect “balmy, minus-20-degree temperatures” during the day. At night, that already low temperature will plummet, eventually ending up around “minus-200 degrees Fahrenheit.”

If Curiosity only had the cold to deal with, it would be something of a pleasant getaway. These calm conditions aren’t expected to last much longer, however, as dust devils will begin to wreak havoc on the planet’s surface as the seasons change from winter to spring and then eventually summer. The dust devils aren’t even the worst of it either, as they can grow into massive dust storms that swallow the entire planet.

It’s those dust storm that de la Torre is interested in, and the Curiosity is well-equipped to study them. It comes loaded with tools that can measure wind speed and direction, air temperature, humidity, ground temperature, and air pressure. This weather data that’s collected on the surface will help NASA scientists determine if Mars is suitable for life, or if it ever was at some point in the past.

Ever since the Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars at the beginning of the week, we’ve been treated to one exciting news piece after another. True, talking about the weather on Mars may not be as exciting as seeing images of the surface, but this research is going to do a lot in helping us understand the red planet, and that is definitely something to look forward to. Be sure to check out our story timeline below for more posts on the Curiosity rover!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Mars Science Laboratory: Raw Images

 

[ScienceRocks]

http://dvice.com/assets_c/2012/08/79-image-mars-mosaic-full-size-98110.php

NASA - First High-Resolution Color Mosaic of Curiosity's Mastcam Images

See Mars come to life in 79-image color mosaic from Curiosity | DVICE

 

[Ernie S.]

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/images/pia16034fixed_Malin_blast1-br2.jpg

8.09.2012
A Set of Blast Marks in Color, Left Side
This cut-out from a color panorama image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover shows the effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground. It comes from the left side of the thumbnail panorama obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera. (See PIA16029.)

Great shots!

Did NASA file an environmental impact statement before it blew that hole in Mars' pristine landscape?

 

[uscitizen]

Coll, they maksked out all my beercans.

 

[Trajan]

Mars rover sends back 1st 360-degree color view
August 9, 2012
Mars rover sends back 1st 360-degree color view

This is the first 360-degree panorama in color of the Gale Crater landing site taken by NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. In the next few days, the software on Curiosity will be optimized for surface operation. Image: NASA

The Curiosity rover has returned another postcard from Mars — the first 360-degree color view from Gale Crater.


Since landing Sunday night, NASA's six-wheel rover has been sending home a trickle of pictures, beginning with grainy, black-and-white photos. It also beamed back a low-quality video showing the last few minutes of its descent to the surface.

Click on the link to make it enlarge!
http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/1-marsroversen.jpg

looks like the Mojave...*shrugs*

 

[ScienceRocks]

I think standing water has been discovered on mars!

 

[ScienceRocks]

 

[ScienceRocks]

Curiosity Rover Fires First Laser Beam at Martian Rock
Curiosity Rover Fires First Laser Beam at Martian Rock | Wired Science | Wired.com

A small, flat rock known as Coronation suffered the wrath of Curiosity’s laser when the Mars rover finally fired up its ChemCam instrument and delivered 30 pulses of energy at the rock over a 10-second period.

The laser pulses, each delivering more than 1 million watts of power for around 5 one-billionths of a second, turn some of the rock’s atoms into a glowing, ionized plasma. By analyzing the light from the plasma, the ChemCam’s three spectrometers can determine what elements are in the rock.

“We got a great spectrum of Coronation — lots of signal,” Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, leader of the ChemCam scientific team, said in a press release today. “Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it’s payoff time!”

The rock formerly known as N165 was selected as a good target for Curiosity to test its laser on. Scientists are using the data to learn how ChemCam is working, but they were impressed with the quality of the data, which are even better than the data acquired during testing on Earth, and they may learn something about the rock as well.

“It’s surprising that the data are even better than we ever had during tests on Earth, in signal-to-noise ratio,” ChemCam scientist Sylvestre Maurice of the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP) in Toulouse, France, said in the press release. “It’s so rich, we can expect great science from investigating what might be thousands of targets with ChemCam in the next two years.”

 

[Two Thumbs]

hmm

rocks and sand

just like every other damn time

whats the debt?

 

[Politico]

Wow more dirt.

 

[ScienceRocks]

hmm

rocks and sand

just like every other damn time

whats the debt?

We spend this every few hour within the middle east. Some people want to get us into a trillion dollar war with Iran.

Stupid people bitch about the small stuff and turn a blind eye at the real reason for the debt.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Wow more dirt.

Wow, more bombs and bullets. Hopefully people like you won't get us into another world war.

 

[Two Thumbs]

hmm

rocks and sand

just like every other damn time

whats the debt?

We spend this every few hour within the middle east. Some people want to get us into a trillion dollar war with Iran.

Stupid people bitch about the small stuff and turn a blind eye at the real reason for the debt.

apples too rocks

killing terrorist to keep them from killing us is a lot different than dumping billions to look at stones

 

[ScienceRocks]

hmm

rocks and sand

just like every other damn time

whats the debt?

We spend this every few hour within the middle east. Some people want to get us into a trillion dollar war with Iran.

Stupid people bitch about the small stuff and turn a blind eye at the real reason for the debt.

apples too rocks

killing terrorist to keep them from killing us is a lot different than dumping billions to look at stones

You do realize that this automatically skycraned a 2,000 pound rover onto the surface of a planet 200 million miles away? Successfully! Can you imagine moving our armor this way in the future(30 years from now)? Today it takes many weeks to move a division or two of armor. This way we could do it far faster. Fast as this can fly it there and land the tanks, etc.

Think about it. A few thousand tanks, Humvee's and armor onto the battlefield, while our enemy is busy wondering how the fuck they're going to get at us. What a surprise. Maybe a robotic force the way things are going.

Worth a few billion for the successful test of this. Done for likely less than the defense department would of done it. In the 1860's the united states army would of never imagined tanks and armor on the battlefield...Again, in 1776 George Washingtons troops would of never imagined of what we have today in fire power.

I could go on and on, but things charge as we push the forward. This techonology could easily be used in defense.

 

[Old Rocks]

Or better yet, using this technology and miniturization to simply go in and take out the perps that are creating the problems. Less and less, are there military problems between nation states, and more and more we see perps regarded as criminal by ourselves and the nations in which they are residing causing the problems.

 

[Politico]

Has anyone else noticed matthew's rants have nothing to do with anything being discussed?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Has anyone else noticed matthew's rants have nothing to do with anything being discussed?

You have nothing to do with the discussion you anti-science filth. Go craw back under a rock in the 19th century.

My thread...So yes, this is part of this thread. You want a 800 billion dollar a year military, well you need to give it the best technology. Saddam found out how it is like to just have a large military, but with 40 year old tech.

You people want a super power with the cutting edge? Well, you don't kill off your tech sector.