Phoenix Mars Landing Thread

The Bad Astronomer got really excited about that picture of Phoenix on its parachutes:

 
I haven't been following this thread. But nonetheless, I'd like to give you this picture the friendly folks at APOD posted. Most likely you already know it and it has been posted already. I am hoping all you had was the zoomed version. (click the pic for higher resolution)


http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080530.html
 
I know it was really left by the arm, but here's one for the conspiracy idiots :)

However, we could have a Caption Contest:

234812main_phx20080601a-516.jpg


"Nasa Film employee leaves footprint by accident"
 
Last edited:
synonys said:
They found ice on Mars!
Click to expand...

Well, yes, years ago. That's supposed (98% certainty, or something) ice exposed, presumably, by Phoenix's decent thrusters during landing. Sadly, that area is not accessible with the arm, so fingers crossed there is underlying ice nearby that Phoenix can 'grab'.
 
Whats the White stuff ice? or is it salt?
 
Phoenix had a problem now because the first sample don´t enter in the tega capsule. :blink:
 
Andy44 said:
That photo just blows me away. Thousands of miles away on an alien planet no man has ever been to and we are operating spacecraft in concert with each other and making it look easy. And my God, the majesty of that crater photo is just amazing! My compliments to the operations teams of all the spacecraft involved in this landing, and to those who support them.
Click to expand...


Another giant leap for man... um... robotic-kind.

All this accomplished on a budgetary shoestring compared to ISS and STS. Imagine what sort of planetary explorations we could have had by now if JPL had gotten the really big NASA bucks. How many more "proofs" are needed before NASA scales back the manned flight business and scales up the robotic missions?

I suppose the politics are insurmountable - manned space flight has had a near-complete lock on NASA for fifty years and that's the way its gonna stay.
 
good morning.
do you know wht is tht "dish" with 6 circles of different colours that appears in a lot of images of itself taken by Phoenix?
thks
Matte
 
Matte said:
good morning.
do you know wht is tht "dish" with 6 circles of different colours that appears in a lot of images of itself taken by Phoenix?
thks
Matte
Click to expand...

You mean the color calibration target?
 
well, it can be :lol:.
pictures of it are taken, it seems, with different contrasts, and many times a day. what is it used for?
 
well, it can be :lol:.
pictures of it are taken, it seems, with different contrasts, and many times a day. what is it used for?
Click to expand...

It's for adjusting the tones in a transmitted photo. You have two disks, one sitting on your desk and the other mounted on the spacecraft. When a photo comes back from the spacecraft, and you are processing it, you adjust the tones in the photo until the disk in the photo matches the one in your hand, and then you know the photo is nearly "true color". Most people don't do this with their home made digital photos, because your camera comes from the factory adjusted for natural sunlight on Earth, or you can adjust it for tungsten photo lighting, or whatever. The result is that you get photos that look "real", but you photoshop them if you want in order to get the best-looking colors. If you want real "true color", though, you would want to do what the Pheonix team does and use a color index card to adjust your tones.
 
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