Rosetta Mars Flyby, Info and Links Options

[dilo]

This is one of the best pictures I have seen in the last months, I agree with Emily/nperv...
I made some elaboration in order to have darker sky and more red/detailed Mars (moderate and stronger correction, respectively):


PS: details on the solar panels remind me something I saw when I was a kid... there was a huge spaceship passing over my head and two droids escaping Imperial forces and landing on that desert planet (Opportunity and Spirit!?)

[mchan]

Where's that swear box? Are folks posting in so stunned they have forgotten to contribute? Clink, clink, clink!

[ugordan]

That true color final image looks a bit too red to me, here's my tweak to the green channel:

This looks to me to be more similar to a view through a telescope while the original image resembles those early MER panoramas using the IR instead of R channel.

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

This one resembles the old MGS compositions.

[dilo]

I agree, Gordan. The color is now very close to the one visible in the NUV-G-NIR published image.
And this is a less psychedelic version of the orange (red), green and near-UV colour filter composite image:

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[antipode]

Having the human artefact in the foreground has a powerful psychological effect. Think of the effect Sojourner had - and this is more immediate, more 'real' - that solar wing is connected to something we made and control - our sensory 'proxy' out there. Our mind's eye has the assistance it needs to put 'us' at that porthole. Savannah-evolved brain in an exotic location indeed!

For that reason if for no other these may be some of the most important images taken by an unmanned spacecraft.

P

[Stu]

How long until we see this..? In our lifetimes..?

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

How long until we see this..? In our lifetimes..?

Firstly - make the landing safe. 3 (failures) :1 (successes) doesn't look very well. Secondly - make an unmanned sample return mission. Thirdly - make smart landing possible. I think we won't see this soon...

[mcaplinger]

For that reason if for no other these may be some of the most important images taken by an unmanned spacecraft.

Sorry to be a curmudgeon, but the reaction to this image, which is rather bland and poorly exposed, surprises me a bit. No accounting for taste, I guess.

[mchan]

Sure, if one were actually there with a handheld camera, use of a flash to fill in the solar array would have made for a much nicer photo. But the result as is nevertheless is still great given the equipment at hand and the limitations on pointing. It is the psychological effect of seeming to be there that is the key here.

I hope ESA will take advantage of future opportunities for similar shots at the asteroid flybys and the comet arrival.

[Stu]

"Bland"? Is your monitor actually switched on ?

I can understand the reaction. It's not so much the composition of the pic, or its colours, or its technical merit, it's what it represents. We're seeing Mars "through the rigging" as it were; not just on its own, surrounded by black, empty space, but through gaps in a human-made structure, giving us the depth of field and sense of scale our monkey brains need to turn a mere picture into a representation of a real place.

Think of the precedents... in 1492 Columbus saw the New World through the taut rigging of his ship, flashes of emerald green through the gaps between the flapping sails... in 1969 Neil Armstrong saw the blue and white Earth shining above Eagle... Now, in 2007, a little landing probe called Philae has peered through a gap in the rigging of its ship, Rosetta, and seen the next New World...

Yes, it's pale, and a little colourless. But looking at it, I feel wonder.

[nprev]

Stu, I was thinking of you when this pic came down...sorry you had to work!

The image just plain captures my imagination, gives me a real sense of being there. This is as close as all but the youngest of us (if they're very, very lucky, that is) will ever be to such a view in real life, and, vicarious though it may be, I feel a sense of satisfaction looking at it. To quote Emily, "Rosetta was here"...and so were we all.

[DDAVIS]

This image brings out the hunger in me for the days when photos like this:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/...S13-61-8727.jpg

were possible. it is like a hand held image which might be obtained from some future orbiting lab. It calls out as a vision of the future.

[ElkGroveDan]

How long until we see this..? In our lifetimes..?

I guess it depends on how far genetics will go toward miniaturizing humans, and then if we can train them to hang onto a solar panel.

[mchan]

My first reaction was similar. But that solar array is ~15m from the spacecraft to the end of the array, and that spacenaut is hanging about halfway out. I can't say a miniaturized person is required there.

OTOH, anyone actually trying to grab that panel out there like that would probably seriously tweak it.