I'm sure Emily did an amazing comparative diagram for all the Mars instruments - but now I can't find it.

Doug

Oh - Venus and Mars globes are common - you can find them on Ebay very easily.

Doug

International Lunar Decade and all that. This is what I've found out from half an hour of Googling.

It'd be nice to fill it out significantly with more details stats, perhaps a coverage ( or expected coverage ) %'ge value, and some older spacecraft (Clementine for example)

Give me the raw figures, I'll plug them in, then think of a means to display them

Doug

Given that we are treating Home Plate as a roundabout - can I just say that I think they went about it the right way - clockwise - and took a wrong turning without asking for directions

Look on the bright side - it could be :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

Doug

Was trying to figure out how to take nice wide field DSLR images of this thing without any means of tracking. In the end I decided to do multiple 8s exposures at ISO 1600, then stack them up hopefully eliminating some of the noise because the subject will move.

This is the result from just 4 frames.

I doubt it makes much of a difference be honest. It's a very thin, very fine layer. Indeed - because it's a lighter colour than the dark solar arrays themselves, it might even make the rover less able to absorb what ever solar heating there is.

Doug

I like the CoS's - I doubt I read half the entries posted in each one, but it introduces me to blogs and sites I otherwise wouldn't know about.

Doug

And of course, the fact that water can exist, at some times, in some places - doesn't mean it does. It is a transient thing and would boil away quite easily - thus it would have to be replenished in some way.

Doug

The cut from many images to one image was nasty - and I admit I really feel sorry for the MSSS guys who've lost two MARDI's now. The cut from one image to none in some respects makes a bit of sense, if the funds can be freed up to fly MARDI as a result. One PHX-MARDI image, or an HD MSL-MARDI movie....that's not a hard call to make imho. Of course, ideally, the answer would be 'both'.

Doug

Visible as a fuzzy blob to the naked eye last night ( beautifully clear skies here in Leciester - Mars was just spectacular)

Binos - just like a little diffuse cloud - no central brightness at all - just a little cloud.

Doug

During the dust storm - they didn't do that. They didn't have the power to run the thing in the afternoon just to pump heat into the system. They just left the basic level circuitry for charging and clock running and the survival heaters kicked in when necessary. The most efficient way to keep the vehicle above a critical temperature is to use a heater when, and only when, it is about to hit that temperature. Anything other than that and you're wasting Whrs keeping the vehicle warmer than it essentially needs to be.

Doug

That's the way they held such low levels - by doing no science save for a single Tau observation one day in three, and communicating one-day-in-three



Doug

We have a filthy rover, and a rapidly coming winter - BUT - we have two things in our favour.

1 : We know we'll have a good slope to drive down onto without worrying about climbing up to a slope
2 : We're VERY good at VERY low power survival following the worst of the dust storm ( i.e. the traditional 240 Whrs minimum was cut almost in half for a while)

Doug

I think they learnt the lesson after the Mars flyby - From me wandering around ESOC going "Any Wifi? I want to blog for the enthusiasts!" to this brilliant inside story in near real time. Much credit to the guys in Darmstadt!


Doug

No. 100,000,000 times no.

A disucssion, a debate, great. But not a 'pool' again. Please. The debate on exactly which point is the actual winter haven and which person is most close to that is just utterly pointless and I don't want to wade through it.

Doug

Currently 320 Whrs - and falling rather fast. Given the fact that mobility with one stuck wheel is always a slight unknown - better to be ahead of the curve toward winter than be near..or behind it.

Doug

Yup - they had to retract them to make room for the deployment of two further radiators which can now happily rotate fully with a full compliment of three radiators. I assume the other side will have it's final two deployed once S6 goes up

Doug

I think the ego of the guy who kicked off our Olympic bid, Seb Coe, exploded.

Doug

LOL - DOH!!! Yup - I was thinking from the top, but editing from the bottom. Oops Well -MOVE OVER KIBO, Columbus is coming

Doug

The Delta IV didn't put the DSP into GTO - it put it into GEO. The Delta IV heavy was still probably an over powerful vehicle for the payload though, hopefully Jim can chip in on that one.

Ahh - he has, some months ago - and THE place for LV discussions : http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/th...996&start=1


Doug

It will not have been tracked since launch - it would only be a best guess - you may find some info regarding it in the annals of the NH website, it was mentioned in the past.

Doug

Stereo may well become great - but I don't think we're there yet.

Doug

A bit more fudgey - a sort of ISS config that will never happen ( S6 + Columbus sans Kibo )

Doug

Just seen this used at the beginning of the first lecture of http://www.phy.mtu.edu/curriculum/PH1600.html via iTunesU

Lecture given by http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html

Of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ fame

Doug

Today a fire broke out at the Olympic site in East London...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7090725.stm

I said to my colleage Josh "Oo - 1230, Terra and Aqua might get a picture - when are their passes...AHH...Aqua will get it at 1300 ish"

By 1530 - bingo - the image was on the Modis website at 500m/pixel and the fire was indeed visible!!!

The 250m image just popped up as well

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtim...131000.250m.jpg