What is Digg?216 Comments
- kdfrawg, on 05/26/2008, -1/+140This is a great weekend to be a space fan.
- allengeer, on 05/26/2008, -2/+66Color photos take longer to send, take more memory, and add unnecessary information to this phase of the mission where the end goal is to quickly determine if the lander is healthy, in a stable place, and if its instruments have deployed.
- crapmatic, on 05/26/2008, -7/+66New pictures from the lander just now in:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96864937@N00/25236874 ... - tommytee, on 05/26/2008, -1/+57This is just an amazing day in space exploration!
- seastobble, on 05/26/2008, -2/+54even before looking, I know that these pictures are going to be grainy and mundane, but there's something about looking at another planet from this point of view that is just breathtaking.
- cambob76, on 05/26/2008, -1/+47The lander has to take time to install Photoshop.
- cannibaljp, on 05/26/2008, -1/+44I watched the landing with my 7 year old son... I had goose bumps - He kept asking me if this was real, or if it was "like a cartoon."
Pretty amazing memory for he and I - I'm really glad that we watched it together! - nonamesleft3, on 05/26/2008, -10/+46I won't be happy unless I see signs of life.
- ginestony, on 05/26/2008, -1/+37Dude, keep politics the hell out of this... please.
- BossKey, on 05/26/2008, -5/+35Initial communications from the Lander:
".......F...I...R...S...T............P...O...S...T... ..........!" - jquipp, on 05/26/2008, -8/+35This one promises not to be an airbag type landing either ... their trying to set it down gently using boosters. VERY RISKY!
- ginestony, on 05/26/2008, -0/+26Those are just the initial photos. The full color panorama won't be made available until Tuesday is what they said. There are already color(ized) photos coming in though
- jpl7986, on 05/26/2008, -6/+29newest photo from the lander: http://inessential.com/images/martian.jpg
- xmizzbojanglesx, on 05/26/2008, -2/+25Awwwwwwwwww!
- Kikkoman, on 05/26/2008, -0/+21I was so excited during the whole EDL process, counting down with them... am I a nerd?!?!
- eschompthis, on 05/26/2008, -0/+21ask and shall receive http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/p ...
- gavdana, on 05/26/2008, -1/+20No one should should be looking for signs of life at digg. If we had lives, we would not be here.
- Emachine, on 05/26/2008, -3/+21Here is the pic they don't show you: http://image.bayimg.com/najolaabl.jpg
- hellawaitsyou, on 05/26/2008, -1/+16This is just the most amazing thing ever, and its too bad that i cant live longer than 200 years to see where this will lead us. Damn all, it sucks being born in 79. It just blows my mind what I'm going to miss when I'm gone.
- xmizzbojanglesx, on 05/26/2008, -2/+17Your backyard looks like *****.
- da_bradler, on 05/26/2008, -3/+17The biggest issue is the fundamental problem with colour photography. Colour photography is based around the human eye which has three different types of light receptors. Green is the primary wavelength we see in(also the wavelength that most earth light falls in.) then red and blue(in that order I believe). Digital cameras sensors are sensitive to light primarily in the infrared and red wavelength(well closer to the infrared then humans). A plain digital sensor has no way to distinguish colour, effectively making it greyscale(it knows only how much light there is not what frequency it is). The way around this is you put a colour filter on a sensor, so for one pixel you put a material that blocks all light except green. then for another pixel all light except red, same for blue. then the software on the camera combines all three to come up with a full colour pixel(the algorithm is normally much more complex as it takes the pixels surrounding those 3 pixels into consideration as well).
Ok so finally i get to my point. since a pixel on a sensor of a digital camera will only receive either green, red or blue the sensor is effectively throwing away potential information from the other 2 colour channels. so in a way you cut the resolution to a third(since 3 now only makes one) and you cut the sensitivity to a third*. As you can see this presents some problems for scientists since as a scientist you would want as much information as possible. What they can do for static pictures is have a physical filter that covers the lens with a green, red, or blue filter and take three images then combine. they can do other calculations as to what colour it most likely is based off all sorts of variables. Or of course they could have a traditional bayer colour filter digital sensor and make up for the loss of light some other way.
*this is not precise because it doesn't take into account how much light there actually is in each channel, doesn't account for the light in infrared and ultraviolet(which is completely blocked). also some colour filters give preference to certain colours(consumer bayer filter cameras have as many green as blue and red combined since there is more information in the green channel, thus meaning more light ends up hitting the sensor.).
Sorry this is such a long post but I hope it explains some things. for more info you can look up bayer filters that will give you a good idea of what I mean. - GIScope, on 05/26/2008, -6/+20Can somebody explain to me why they have used a black&white camera on board the Phoenix? :/
- absurdist, on 05/26/2008, -0/+13I was born in 1955, you insensitive clod!
- ginestony, on 05/26/2008, -0/+13It takes less time to send data in black and white. Color photos will come later.
- tefeari, on 05/26/2008, -2/+14First Color Image:
http://jpl.nasa.gov/images/phoenix/collection_16/f ... - poorman04, on 05/26/2008, -5/+17I thought by now they would at least have color photos.
- ginestony, on 05/26/2008, -0/+12No man, I'm right there with you. It's a proud day to be a nerd
- PabloMac, on 05/26/2008, -0/+12They pay for internet access by the hour.
- PabloMac, on 05/26/2008, -2/+13Prepare for sadness.
- DaviDTC, on 05/26/2008, -3/+14Watching live NASATV right now and they showed the first pics they got from from Lander. Solar array pics, landscape image, image of the landing area with the footpad.
- evilregis, on 05/26/2008, -0/+11Dugg for rearing future space geeks. Bravo.
- Whatup, on 05/26/2008, -0/+11Here: http://fawkes4.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=0&cI ...
- slifty, on 05/26/2008, -8/+19HOLY CRAP IT'S MEGATRON!
- Scaryclouds, on 05/26/2008, -0/+11While being able to guide the ball by remote control the entire way!
- spyd3rweb, on 05/26/2008, -3/+14Holy crap, Nasa's duct taped a cell phone camera to this thing.
- Boing, on 05/26/2008, -2/+13That's the most awesome dirt ever!
- nemojonze, on 05/26/2008, -0/+10The ice is a few inches below the surface. The lander is in the equivalent of Northern Quebec or Siberia in relation to the true Martian North Pole. They are looking in the perma-frost layer. It's not actually in the polar cap.
- loggia, on 05/26/2008, -1/+11They just showed pics during the NASA press conference...
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/ind ... - RobotBuddha, on 05/26/2008, -1/+11Man, you have signs of life right there! Life being fairly awesome in actually expanding its horizens to another planet! Yes, it'd be cool if evidence of life on another planet were found. It'd also be cool if a unicorn came to my place and started pooping gold. The lack of the unicorn in no way makes the fact that we're seeing images of 'another planet' through the eyes of a space robot any less amazing. I can remember when non-rotary phones were evidence of high technology, and we're dealing with extra-terestrial robots now! For all that's wrong with the world, and all that I'd like to see go right with our species, that's just amazing no matter how you look at it.
- colifis, on 05/26/2008, -0/+10One day in the future when men travel to mars it would be cool for them to visit all the dead probes and rovers we have deposited there. They will be pieces of history.
- somenice, on 05/26/2008, -1/+10Start terraforming already
- domains, on 05/26/2008, -0/+97 seconds late
- LogitechG15, on 05/26/2008, -1/+10See folks, this is why not everyone can work for NASA.
- Stketcher, on 05/26/2008, -1/+10So....Where's the ice?
- MasterGrief, on 05/26/2008, -0/+9I was watching the webcast just waiting to hear that something like a gust of wind had knocked it over and it had flung itself even faster into the ground... And it went fine! It's landed, everything is fine now. :D
- xmizzbojanglesx, on 05/26/2008, -1/+10That was pretty sexy.
- jj1075, on 05/26/2008, -3/+11Black and white is much more artistic of course.
- bjornski, on 05/26/2008, -1/+9http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/images/mars.JPG
- frieddonuts, on 05/26/2008, -0/+8Kind of reminds you that this isn't some fictional place...it's another world that we may reach some day.
- jake86, on 05/26/2008, -0/+8Earth 2: Don't ***** it up.
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