I can understand how the engineering behind a launch vehicle could be ITAR'd, or things such as the specifics of the RAD rockets and airbag inflation ( both military derived ) - but a CAD drawing from which one can gauge essentially only the look of the thing - I still cant figure out why that would come under the remit of ITAR...and infact it probably doesnt - it's more likely to be a copyright issue...

....but the whole issue blows straight out the window when my mind casts back to the CAD file as the freely available Patent application contains much of the same material at a similar resolution.

For those struggling with the Tif's - I have Quicktime pro, and yup - the images never show up, but if I right click where they SHOULD show up - I can 'save as quicktime source' and just save a tif to my desktop which loads fine

Doug

I cant wait to see this lot - I'm giving a talk near Dartford at the beginning of November, and am going to London's Imax theatre the following day to see it

Doug

There spoke the voice of a man who's tried the Gemini scenarios in Orbiter

Or at least - it sounds like you have

Doug

It's called a 12" tablet PC

I agree - a portable reading system would be good, but in general, people just dont like reading on PC screens.

Doug

We dont have enough DSN dishes or relay capacity for a dozen MER's.

I agree - the design is amazing, it seems a shame to not re-use it, but MER has done it's job -and we now have a target to go and send more able rovers and landers.

Not going to pull anything yet - but yes - it IS getting too political

Doug

They are Tiff's (madness frankly) and thus need some sort of plugin (quicktime will do)

I thought of just deleting this thread, for fear of google-bot bringing more lawyers to the 'scene' - but at least this thread tells the story of availability.

Doug

I'm affraid it had to be taken down - Caltech considered it proprietry information.

Please dont ask for anyone to email it to you - this place has got in trouble over it once before, dont want it to happen again.

Doug

Peak oil has been a discussion for years and years and years - and the facts have been massaged time and again to scare monger.

Yes - we need to move from an oil based economy to something else ( hydrogen, ideally ) and we need to start doing it seriously..now.

But is it a problem in the next 5 yeras, 10 years, 20 years. No.

Doug

It's extremeist propaganda, nothign else.

Doug

You can see that they needed several burns to station keep at 20km, as I suggested it would. It'll just get worse the lower they get

With NEAR at Eros, it was a lumpy and bumpy orbit, but you COULD actually orbit it - Hayabusa is just that bit too small to do so I guess.

Doug

I think they probably just took MI images while the IDD was.. 'in the area' just to see what it looks like after almost two years

Doug

"if all MER XYZ files where stitched together into a single seamless 3d mesh"

Well - it could be done for SOME areas, but remember, there isnt complete imaging coverage of every metre driven - infact there are 100 metre + gaps in it much of the time.

A way to convert XYZ to .3ds or .dxf would be an excellent start

Doug

No - he's right - if you're talking antennae, then the LGA is the big one, the UHF the smaller one on the left and the HGA is the round one on the right. The magnet on the back is the tiny thing next to the Sundial

Doug

It would have been nice to do some time-lapse imaging of the parachute while we were up on the rim of Bonneville, as we might have seen it flapping.

Even just between filters imaging Opportunities heatshield, you can see parts of mylar flapping in the wind.

Doug

Yup - 'chute, backshell, and infact the bridle all the way down to the pyro that fired to seperate the lander will all be in a pile over there somewhere

Doug

The parachute and the backshell were, and remain firmly attached to one another.

Doug

It was from Alan via email to me - I think he just clicked reply to a private-message email



From Alan:
"You know we're getting closer to launch when this happens: You too can spend, spend, spend on cool NH gear at:

http://www.pcxhost.com/store/st7/tp8/produ...8B53D04D5CC0A8A "

Doug

I'd have thought the 'chute would almost certainly be flapping around a little

Doug

A little bird tells me, NH is...

72 pellets, 190+ Watts in 2015

Doug

The far side, from this view.

Doug

And another one

A couple of different anaglyphs of the same image pair, just getting different areas as being the point of interest - I think they're stunning!

Doug

But in this case - totally unfounded concerns - and they embark on a mission to spread missinformation. I dont laugh at those who object to the launch of RTG's into Space - they make me angry.

Doug

The mass involved would be much MUCH better used as more solar array, which you KNOW is going to generate power

As for the data, it's no really data we need is it? Hardly worth a whole new MER!

Doug