What is Digg?27 Comments
- furiouszebra, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Oh my god this is the worst post I have ever seen
- domusvita, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14So much for the hope that Venus really was populated by hot babes ( ala Abbott and Costello).
- Kerr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Its fascinating to think we were on Venus 24 years ago...we really have gone down hill with space exploration.
- DonPMitchell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Thanks guys. I just added a blog entry with some more technical details on this.
http://donpmitchell.blogspot.com/
The raw images can be seen here:
http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_Catalog.htm - Bdog2g2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8the pressure and the heat killed them after a few hours. most likely they're nothing more than a stain on Vensus' surface.
Interplanetary roadkill - sgreger1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Amazing pictures
- bdunford, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Actually, when it comes to robotic exploration like the Venus probes, we're in a golden era. There are acitve missions at Mars and Saturn, others on their way to Pluto and Mercury, others now reaching into interstellar space. If you'll excuse the link (it's a totally free, non-commercial site) you can track them here: http://www.ridingwithrobots.org
- stimcaps, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Here's the blog of the man who processed those Venus images: http://donpmitchell.blogspot.com/
It's not updated very often, but when it is, it's nearly always something fascinating, like this panoramic composite photo of the Soviet rocketship Molniya, taken by stitching together and sweetening video frames as it rose into the sky: http://donpmitchell.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_donpmitchell_archive.html
Definitely worth adding to your Bloglines feeds. - supradave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Do you think that those 2 craft are still intact? I've always wondered that if the "hellish" surface conditions created a situation in which the craft disintegrated more quickly.
- DonPMitchell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3No, there is no strong edge enchancement. The digital image from the lander was 9 bits per pixel and very high quality. In fact each pixel value is a photomultipler-tube measurment, and those are extremely low noise sensors.
The final image is just treated carefully. It was linearized (the 9-bit values were approximately logarithmic). A precise and not very intense sharpening filter is applied next, as specified by the Russians, to correct for the camera aperture effect. Then the image was blown up by a factor of 2, for easier viewing, and this was done with a Kaiser-windowed sinc filter, which preserves image details very well. - lordie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Don Mitchell's website has a week's worth of geek info about the Soviet trips to Venus, including photos of all the ships, the raw data, his extrapolated data, and more.
http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm
I've had this bookmarked for something like 2 years now. It's a fantastic site. - LucasVB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thanks for the links man! Definitelly on my newsfeed list
- DonPMitchell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Right, it was a penetrometer. The builders claim that the probe did not hit the cap. They got a signal from it, and did some experiments with a mock-up, comparing it with the image. And they believe the cap is lying on its side, and penetrometer probe is contacting the ground just on the other side of the cap.
- super_spyder, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I would like to see the originals
- kdehead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1stunning work. looks like one of the landers landed in the aftermath of a lava field - its flat as a pancake.
- CadMasterAdam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Don you are an inspiration to geeks around the world. you have inspired me to try harder.
ps. post your planet color pallet in the science section and see if it gets to the front. i don't think people realize how toned down the color of planets is. i didn't. - paulgibson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's amazing, It looks like home. I'm not sure but have they been enhanced by using new image detection techniques (variations on the Sobel/prewitt edge detection and other feature extraction stuff).
Are there any Image/Computer Vision specialists that can shed some light on the techniques that the likes of NASA..etc use for making the images more viewable? - bdunford, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thanks for all your work, Don - great resources.
- rickyjames, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1People just don't realize how special these two images really are. They prove the existence of Murphy's Law on other planets. Note the two main features of the spacecraft - one is a protective covering for the camera system that's ejected onto the surface, the other is a sampling arm that is extended and placed in contact with the soil. In the first mission, the cover is on the right, the sample arm is on the left. In the second mission, the camera cover landed exactly where the sample arm came down. The Soviets sent a spacecraft to Venus only to have it measure the chemical composition of its own lenscap.
- rickyjames, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Oops, I was wrong - the arm didn't measure chemical composition, it was a spring-loaded hammer to measure compressibility of the soil. You know, Don, you should REALLY tell this story on your blog. Here's a link:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/gmis9907.htm
Great work on the photos... - MOJIRA, on 05/17/2008, -3/+3Venus my ass, that is sooo New Mexico.
Cool though, I thought Venus was a gas planet. - eboy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2 awesome!!!! I love it!!! 3 cheers for science!
- ray901, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@bdunford
Ta very much for that link - very nice!
Virtual pint to you - charlietuna, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Worse than Bakersfield, CA?
- DonPMitchell, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1They were made from titanium and ceramics. They are certainly fried, but probably look intact at first glance.
- MacGeekGuy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1They are amazing pictures indeed. I think it's odd that they took "artistic license" with some of them... which makes me think they almost shouldn't have bothered, but they are cool images.
- ePlus, on 10/12/2007, -41/+5Back in Mother Russia... All Your Base Are Belong to US.
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