Mars or US Southwest? Spirit Rover Panorama (APOD 29 Jan 08)

arnom · Post by **arnom** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 4:13 pm

I must conclude that the photo of Jan 29 2008 was taken in the Southwest.
How do you explain the foreground paved with tiles or bricks and a man made object resembling a fire hydrant in the right bottom corner of the picture? Peace. arnom

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 5:24 pm

Yep, and all the "Moon walks" were filmed on a sound stage in Hollywood.

What you refer to as pavement tiles and fire hydrants are parts of the rover.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080129.html

West Valley Panorama from the Spirit Rover on Mars (APOD 2008 Jan 29)

Andy Wade · Post by **Andy Wade** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 5:44 pm

bystander wrote:What you refer to as pavement tiles and fire hydrants are parts of the rover.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080129.html

West Valley Panorama from the Spirit Rover on Mars (APOD 2008 Jan 29)

I was quite concerned how much dust covers the photo electric cells on the rover!

I know they're well past their expected lifespan but I do hope a gentle breeze comes along and blows it off.

craterchains · Post by **craterchains** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:46 pm

How about if we ask that "little Big Foot" guy to wipe the dust off?

Sorry

I just couldn't help myself.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:14 pm

craterchains wrote:How about if we ask that "little Big Foot" guy to wipe the dust off?

He'll have to apply for a little Green man Card first before he touches the Rover with a squiggy.

BMAONE23 · Post by **BMAONE23** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:20 pm

He could always emigrate as the next Martian ROCK Band

NoelC · Post by **NoelC** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 11:21 pm

Here we are presented with a stunning, detailed, interesting, albeit rather poorly stitched panorama of the surface of another planet, and the first response on this board is from a conspiracy theorist. Okay, the inset is intended to get non-scientific folks' attention, I'll give it that. But it's just a rock or two.

But oh, my, what a view! I pulled the high resolution image across two monitors and wow, I feel I'm there! And with enough resolution to zoom in and see tons of detail!

Look at the dunes in the plain to the upper-left... The "gullies" to the right... And is that sedimentary rock or sandstone at the left bottom? The big roundish rock in the medium distance near the right edge - a meteorite? SOOOOO much to see here. I'm in awe...

How come the rover wasn't equipped with a dust brush? Or maybe a small fan?

I have to admit, the monotonic orange-brown color could be depressing for the first astronauts to go to Mars and stay there a while, but hey, take some blue tinted sunglasses and it won't be too bad.

An image like this surely stirs the explorer in all of us. Bravo NASA!!!

-Noel

NoelC · Post by **NoelC** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 11:39 pm

By the way, does anyone know if the individual frames for this kind of image are available online? I'd like to try to see if I could do a better job of stitching than has been done on this image.

-Noel

Case · Post by **Case** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:20 am

NoelC wrote:I have to admit, the monotonic orange-brown color could be depressing for the first astronauts to go to Mars and stay there a while, but hey, take some blue tinted sunglasses and it won't be too bad.

The human eye (actually the brain) is very adaptive. It will find a 'white balance' and maximize contrast, eliminating most of the hue.
Instead of

the astronaut will see something more like

Storm_norm · Post by **Storm_norm** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:31 am

someone already said what I have to say. but on top of the image looking a lot like the southwest, what else needs to be done to disprove the conspiracy theorists??

aim the camera toward the sky and see how big jupiter is in the Martian sky???

can you imagine jupiter in the martian sky when jupiter is at its closest to mars??

and I think the conspiracy theorist has a closed mind. why use the USA's land to fake an alien land. why not use some other alien looking land in other parts of the world. anyone see those specials on the plateaus of PERU !!! they look pretty martian to me

take the situation and reverse it. lets say we are on mars and we are sending a probe to the Earth, and it lands in the dessert southwest?? then what?? the conspiracy theorists would have a hay day.

geonuc · Post by **geonuc** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:07 pm

NoelC wrote:Here we are presented with a stunning, detailed, interesting, albeit rather poorly stitched panorama of the surface of another planet, and the first response on this board is from a conspiracy theorist. Okay, the inset is intended to get non-scientific folks' attention, I'll give it that. But it's just a rock or two.

But oh, my, what a view! I pulled the high resolution image across two monitors and wow, I feel I'm there! And with enough resolution to zoom in and see tons of detail!

Look at the dunes in the plain to the upper-left... The "gullies" to the right... And is that sedimentary rock or sandstone at the left bottom? The big roundish rock in the medium distance near the right edge - a meteorite? SOOOOO much to see here. I'm in awe...

How come the rover wasn't equipped with a dust brush? Or maybe a small fan?

I have to admit, the monotonic orange-brown color could be depressing for the first astronauts to go to Mars and stay there a while, but hey, take some blue tinted sunglasses and it won't be too bad.

An image like this surely stirs the explorer in all of us. Bravo NASA!!!

-Noel

If you're wondering why no non-conspiracy theorists commented on the image first, perhaps it's because we've seen a number of these images before. The OP clearly hasn't.

Still, I agree, it's gorgeous. I too am curious about the gullies on the lower right. The rocks on the left are just begging to be picked up and added to my collection (sandstone is a sedimentary rock, by the way).

jimmysnyder · Post by **jimmysnyder** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:36 pm

arnom wrote:I must conclude that the photo of Jan 29 2008 was taken in the Southwest.
How do you explain the foreground paved with tiles or bricks and a man made object resembling a fire hydrant in the right bottom corner of the picture? Peace. arnom

Ooops, how careless of us. I told Nick to crop that photo, but I guess he just forgot to do it. Nice catch arnom. We'd have to get up pretty early in the morning to pull one over on you.
Yours,
the imaging team at JPL

marion ballantyne · Post by **marion ballantyne** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:25 pm

Home found for Little Big Foot.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6461201.stm

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:02 pm

NoelC wrote:By the way, does anyone know if the individual frames for this kind of image are available online? I'd like to try to see if I could do a better job of stitching than has been done on this image.

Try http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit.html. Don't know if this is what you need or not. I would like to see your efforts, keep us posted.

arnom · Post by **arnom** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:06 pm

Jimmy thanks for putting things in perspective. Dont be too harsh on yourself and your team. After all you did a good job editing out the dog by the fire hydrant. Peace.

Arramon · Post by **Arramon** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:07 pm

<_<

I think the panorama is excellent. And the little Big Foot is like 6 centimeters, so we should just call it Little Foot... but then again, it may not even have feet.

The images of the caves from Mars orbit are astounding. You can totally see the rim of the cave go down and disappear, as if the opening is to a huge cavern below.

iamlucky13 · Post by **iamlucky13** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:13 pm

NoelC wrote:How come the rover wasn't equipped with a dust brush? Or maybe a small fan?

They looked at putting all manner of different cleaning devices on the panels, but in the end they concluded the mass penalty was too great, and it would cost at least one science instrument. So they decided to maximize the panel area and run for as long as they could. Considering they're 14 times beyond the minimum criteria and over three times beyond what anyone expected to get out of the rovers, I'd say it was the right decision.

arnom wrote:Jimmy thanks for putting things in perspective. Dont be too harsh on yourself and your team. After all you did a good job editing out the dog by the fire hydrant. Peace.

I could see the sarcasm being lost from the first post, but surely this ought to be a dead give away he was joking about this being Arizona. Simmer down folks.

Stuart Rowe · Post by **Stuart Rowe** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:57 am

Can somebody explain the rectangular grid pattern in the picture foreground to the left and right of this picture?
Also what is the hardware seen on the near foreground about centre?
Stuart

BMAONE23 · Post by **BMAONE23** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 6:29 am

the Grid Pattern is caused by the rover's solar panels as seen in this image

and I believe that the post and drum that are also visible are the communications antennae also seen here

in this dusty image

Arramon · Post by **Arramon** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:17 pm

=D

People! There are exploration rovers on Mars, and they've been there for years now! so any technology in these photos are manmade, and any terrain you see is not of earth. =b

hehehe.... too bad they couldnt bounce around the planet like when they landed.

First thing humans need to do when there is pick these rovers up, dust them off, repair equipment and possibly install some dust brushes at that time. Then let them go back about their business of strolling around the wastelands, gathering science data. >.<

Could Spirit be directed to take more images of the Little Person? Or maybe if it gets too close, it would run it over. d'oh! our first roadkill on another world.

iamlucky13 · Post by **iamlucky13** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:18 pm

Arramon wrote:Could Spirit be directed to take more images of the Little Person? Or maybe if it gets too close, it would run it over. d'oh! our first roadkill on another world.

It definitely could, but it took this picture 2-3 months ago (and it took the press a while to notice the shadow). It's since then moved on a little further to a slope with good sun exposure where it will remain parked until the end of the martian winter.

At that point, assuming it is still getting enough power from the dusty solar panels to keep moving, NASA will probably drive it to the most scientifically interesting targets instead of going back to find a rock that probably only looks remarkable under the right lighting conditions.

Starship Asterisk*

Mars or US Southwest? Spirit Rover Panorama (APOD 29 Jan 08)

Mars or US Southwest? Spirit Rover Panorama (APOD 29 Jan 08)

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2008 January 29: West Valley Panorama from the Spirit Rover