Mariner Mars 1964, Mariners 3 and 4 to Mars: imaging plans? |
Mariner Mars 1964, Mariners 3 and 4 to Mars: imaging plans? |
Apr 28 2005, 05:05 PM
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#1
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10191 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
I am currently working on a book about lunar exploration, but looking ahead to the next one, which will cover Mars. One question to which I think I have an answer - but I'd like to see what my fellow Mars enthusiasts think - is this:
Mariner 3 failed to leave Earth. But if it had flown successfully, what area on Mars would it have photographed? My understanding is that there was no specific plan. The MM64 press kit, for instance, says nothing about image coverage for either Mariner 3 or Mariner 4. I believe that navigation to planetary distances was still so uncertain that the flight team could not predict at launch the sub-spacecraft point at closest approach - uncertainties included the exact time of the flyby, the distance and the point at which the spacecraft would pass through the target plane. These things would be known closer to the flyby but they weren't precisely predictable at launch, so Mariner 3 never got to the stage of having an imaging plan. Am I right? Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PD: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Jul 14 2008, 05:13 PM
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#76
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Member Group: Members Posts: 529 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
Today is the 43 anniversary of the first Mars flyby. I would like propose you a very interesting article written by Doug Rickard. Memoirs of a space engineer. Doug Rickard was a very unusual man, with very unusual biography. Doug worked on the British Atomic Weapons Tests at Maralinga in South Australia in the late 1950s, and was victim of incident known as "Maralinga Cobalt 60 incident". I emailed with him a few times maybe eight years ago. And on precisely the 50th anniversary of the Mariner IV flyby, New Horizons will reach Pluto. Our team has already begun compiling a list of Mariner IV alums to invite to see the first reconnaissance of the ninth planet at the edge of the classical planetary system. Alan Stern |
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Jul 15 2008, 03:32 AM
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#77
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Alan, please forgive me, but I really do have to ask: Is this purely a coincidence, or a lucky but hoped-for hit based on NH's launch date? I know that nobody would ever waste fuel trying to make this really remarkable anniversary happen.
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jul 15 2008, 03:36 AM
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#78
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3233 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
Could be just as much of as coincidence as January 14/15 being a popular times for major encounters/landings/flybys lately...
-------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Jul 15 2008, 08:31 AM
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#79
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Member Group: Members Posts: 599 Joined: 26-August 05 Member No.: 476 |
The NH Pluto / Mariner 4 Mars flyby connection was pointed out by one of the UMSF folks here, and Alan had thought that was just great (a coincidence). This was after the Pluto flyby date was firmed up after launch.
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Jul 15 2008, 09:07 AM
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#80
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Member Group: Members Posts: 529 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
Alan, please forgive me, but I really do have to ask: Is this purely a coincidence, or a lucky but hoped-for hit based on NH's launch date? I know that nobody would ever waste fuel trying to make this really remarkable anniversary happen. Nprev- It's just a coincidence I recognized a few years ago, but I like it-- it nicely symbolizes the bookend nature of NH. -Alan |
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Jul 15 2008, 11:21 AM
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#81
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1870 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174 |
Viking 1 was sort of trying to land on July 4, 1976 <200th anniv of signing of the Declaration of Independence>, but landing site certification blew that date, so they had to settle for the anniversary of the first manned moon landing, instead.
Both dates were available within the "optimum" timeline and didn't take any fudging to try to achieve. |
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Jul 15 2008, 07:32 PM
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#82
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4404 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
I have put together a little commemorative compilation of the Mariner 4 images, along with the nearest decent context image of the correct hemisphere in the International Mars Patrol collection in the lower right hand corner.
I have also attached a fused mosaic of frames 1-4 with the small gap filled using interpolation and false noise to give it an even texture. The other sets are too far away from each other for that to work. -------------------- |
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Jul 14 2010, 11:30 PM
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#83
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Member Group: Members Posts: 204 Joined: 14-April 06 From: Seattle, WA Member No.: 745 |
I would like to note that today is the 45th anniversary of the first close-up pictures from Mars.
Five more years and we will celebrate the 50th anniversary ... by looking at pictures from Pluto! |
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Dec 17 2010, 05:38 PM
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#84
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Member Group: Members Posts: 568 Joined: 20-April 05 From: Silesia Member No.: 299 |
I'm looking for Mariner IV televison data tabular display. Twenty-eight pages of this format type were required for each picture. Reward is serious (except fame and glory) for the first complete picture (if it still exists). -------------------- Free software for planetary science (including Cassini Image Viewer).
http://members.tripod.com/petermasek/marinerall.html |
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Dec 17 2010, 09:59 PM
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#85
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Member Group: Members Posts: 555 Joined: 27-September 10 Member No.: 5458 |
May be available from the NSSDC if you contact them. There's a page for Mariner 4 Master Data Records and Mariner 4 MDL Reacquisition Data on CD-WO. Not sure if either would include the full playback data or if any of them would be included but far as I can find, there is nothing available on their FTP regarding the raw data. Here are all of the raw converted photos though.
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Dec 17 2010, 11:15 PM
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#86
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10191 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
There was a long discussion of this deeper back in this section if you go looking. One problem about NSSDC is that the archive medium was film - negatives, in other words, not digital or paper.
Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PD: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Dec 17 2010, 11:47 PM
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#87
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4404 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
I have tried multiple places (including the NSSDC), and I am starting to believe that the volume doesn't exist.
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Dec 17 2010, 11:54 PM
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#88
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14433 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I think this - http://mm04.nasaimages.org/MediaManager/sr...mp;profileid=21 - or something VERY similar to it is in the hall of the Media Relations offices at JPL. I'll gigapan it one day - you can read every single number off it.
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Dec 18 2010, 12:20 AM
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#89
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Member Group: Members Posts: 555 Joined: 27-September 10 Member No.: 5458 |
That's pretty neat. So they took all the matrices and hand colored each number basically?
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Dec 18 2010, 12:29 AM
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#90
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14433 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
They bracketed the values into big ranges - and each range got a different color
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