You're quite right - I must add RTG's, an LGA, thermal louvres, instruments, thruster clusters and a launch adaptor right away



Remember - it's always been based upon the spacecraft symbol from the Pioneer plaques - all I'm doing is making a modern interpretation of the same thing...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960630.html

Doug

Actually yes - time does make a difference. I've added one more 'string' to the equation - monthly allowance of bandwidth.

Doug

I would say that effect is too small to be really worth considering - how far apart are the CCD's - a cm, an inch - not much more than that....over a distance of 250km We're talking .000002 to .000011 degrees ( for 1 to 5 centimetre offset...if my very old Trig isn't letting me down)

I agree that the colour fringing is there - but it's down to downsampling imho. I agree with Tim - Tuvas et.al. should be able to fill us in on tha tone.

Doug

I'm about to switch ISPs from Plusnet to Vivaciti, both supposed 'Up to 8Meg' adsl solutions and thought I'd try and 'benchmark' before and after the shift - so I've tried downloading 4 files...not the whole thing, just enough to watch the speed settle and then cancel it. They are....

d) 19 Megabyte Navcam Image from the Imaging Node of PDS at JPL
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/mer2-...p1818r000m2.img

e) The JP2 from this page at LPL:
http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/PSP/PSP_001330_1395/

f) HRSC Tif from ESA
http://sci.esa.int/science-e-media/img/0e/...00_RGBN_50p.tif

g) A random PPT from UMSF
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_im.../mars_stuff.ppt


I thought it would make an interesting insight into various internet services to compare and contrast - so..

a) Your ISP and Nation. b ) The advertised bandwidth down c) Price, roughly, in dollars per month if it's a home service - if not just put "work" or "academic" or something.. - then the four bandwidth tests.....and if you're AT LPL or JPL...the results will be even more interesting and we can all hate you Also interesting will be the European speeds getting the JPL, and the American speeds getting the ESA etc etc - comparing the intra and inter continental capacity.

a) Plusnet (UK)
b ) $45
c) Up to 8 Meg
d) 80 kb/sec
e) 85 kb/sec
f) 300 kb/sec
g) 75 kb/sec
h) 13 Gb Peak / Unlimited Off Peak.


a) Zen (UK)
b ) $35
c) Up to 8 Meg
d) 370 kb/sec
e) 390 kb/sec
f) 620 kb/sec
g) 375 kb/sec
h) 20 Gb

Oh, a little company in the UK - heard lots of impressive things about them - Vivaciti...a business bundle with good upload and low contention - But for the purposes of this thread - yes - they are HiSP

Doug

I've just orded a switch of ISP from Plusnet to a different company... do you think 300-off-peak-Gig will be enough

Doug

Oh - it's far far too late to say that

Doug

Technical phrase is a whole HiBunch of pictures.



Doug

Problem is - you could have tumbling in an axis that had zero power - or full power...but more likely somewhere inbetween. Call it an average of Half Power. But that half power is over half the orbit - so you never have a charged battery going into eclipse, and always come out with it flattened. Then, if you don't get a good enough angle on the arrays next time around - you end up with a cold spacecraft, a flat battery, and that's when you have actual failures of the hardware required to keep things under control.

Depending on what sort of orientation it is in and what that spin is like - it may well be that after a few months - everything rotates around the sun to give the old girl enough power to wake up and perhaps tell us what's wrong...but it would be a long shot.

Doug

I'm afriad I have bad news about our cat Suzi.

6 weeks ago, we took her to the vet to have a lump on her side looked at, and we were told that it was a inoperable tumor that had taken hold within a rib, already causing a pathalogical fracture and calcium deposition within her lungs. The prognosis was terminal - and the only timeline we were given was that a dog with a similar problem lasted about a month.

Just over a month later, about a fortnight ago, we began to notice the first signs that all was not well - just sleeping a bit more, eating a bit less, but it was a road we knew we coudn't go down forever and nor was there a way of turning around . This week, we came to a point where we could tell she was not herself - not happy. Her mind was alive and kicking, but her body couldn't do what she wanted it to do anymore. We spent yesterday at home with her before going back to the Vet last night and she went to sleep for the last time with her head on my hand and our faces nuzzling. A little part of our hearts went with her. When I was typing private messages to people to tell them to behave...Suzi would join in and waltz across the keyboard. When typing up a lengthy post, she would squish herself in the way, and lean on my hand as I tried to scroll around a HiRISE image.

I'd like to thank my admin team, from the bottom of my heart, for being so understanding after I first told them what was going on at the end of October. Nico, Emily, Dan, Alex, Mike, James - your words of support were truely appreciated. Words are hard to find at a time like this - but Helen found the best :

Suzi was such a great cat that the angels were jealous. Yesterday we let them adopt her. We know she'll be happy with them.

I just pray that God remembered to get in extra tuna or there'll be hell to pay.

Sleep tight little one. Thank you for being ours.

Well - tumbling would suggest ACS failure - and ACS failure (for whatever reason) would almost certainly mean a spacecraft that was not power positive - and MC's words on that were that unless it was power positive, it was good-night Mr Bond.

But - conversely - SOHO was found to be tumbling back when it played truent for 6 months - and was saved ( even from a point when all its fuel had frozen solid ).

However - I think MGS is probably lost - I just hope that HiRISE can get a picture of MGS...even if it's a hard sequence to get right, and a bandwidth whore ( black should compress really well ) - I think it's an image we would all want to see (and one that would make it into the main stream press as well )

Doug

And scienticially interesting as well.

Doug

These have been discussed in the HiPOD thread
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...=3532&st=60

The best guess at the moment is boulder tracks after material drops off the steep slopes to the east.
http://www.awalkonmars.com/PSP_001415_1875..._crop100per.jpg

Zoomed out - you're right - they look a lot like rover tracks! Zoomed in however, you can see the bounce-and-roll tracks, and the rock at the end of each one. Local topography explains why they go in different directions.

Doug

Or even the changes over time in the differences between measured and modelled - that would be more of a clincher.

Doug

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/technology/met.php

Basically LIDAR for measuring ice and dust loading at various altitudes. The Martian CFDS will have something to say about it I'm sure

Doug

That's the first lunar flyby - B is now on its way - A will loop back one more time, get a flyby in about 35 days of the moon again - and head out the other direction.

Doug

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/multimedia/...x_animation.php

All we need is the MSL one at this res - and I can scare people silly at every talk I give!

Doug

No speculation please - such things always outstrip reality and can get out of hand. You'll all just have to sit tight and wait.

What are you - a school teacher (Who else buys it!)

I'll leave the full story of why I was at speaking to Maev at Sir Patricks at the end of last week till February

Till then....I will leave you all in suspense. Great picture of Jeanie (the fluffy one) on Sir Patrick's desk on Page 10.... with an 1877 globe of Mars on his desk - again, a great story to tell, but it'll have to wait

Doug

"a thorough end-to-end test"

Viking 1, 2, Pathfinder, MPL, MERA, MERB....none had end to end tests...it's impossible to replicate the conditions on Earth in any realistic way.

Doug

It's actually more like 200-and-something days.... so we're looking at integrations of 4 days instead of 12 hours.

Doug

MARSIS is lower resolution but deeper penetration. SHARAD is higher resolution but shallower penetration

Doug

As I understand it - MO is back online. They had a little X-band downlink, but normality should now be resumed.

Doug

Yeah - the other ones are 3-axis

Doug

Valencia was hot enough thanks - genetically I'm an eskimo I think, once the dial hits 30 C, I start falling apart....kudos to the JAXA guys for handing out nice fans though. Any attempt to blog from India would result in the random signals generated by a keyboard under 2 inches of persperation.

Glasgow in '08 though -

Doug