Less than half an hour ago, nasa got its first pictures back from the opportunity lander sitting on Mars. It was amazing to hear the shouts and cheers as each new image came through.
And what an amazing site! The landing spot looks totally different from anything seen before on mars, as can see in this photo HERE as opposed to the other lander HERE
It appears to have some kind of fine dust floor, and there is an outcrop of bedrock on the horizon!
The people in the port landing nasa briefing discribed the location as better than what they imagined in their wildest dreams.
Finding a place that is wildly different to the other lander is extreamly significant as it lets the scientists compare and contrast the data.(as they both have indentical instruments)
Also Bedrock is very useful because its anchored in place, unlike smaller rockst that could be moved about or thrown from a crater.
Well thats it from me.
James
PS : Check out http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/ for all the information.
Sunday, January 25, 2004
NASA TV - Opportunity has Landed
For the past couple of days I have been watching NASA TV, and following the progress of nasa's latest mission, landing 2 rovers on mars. (Yes I know I should be doing other work!)
If you have been following it at all you will know that nasa has had trouble contacting/controlling its first Rover "Spirit".
Just today they have started to make progress with diagnosed the fault. Putting the errors down to some type of flash memory issue.
But perhaps more exiting is that just recently the second rover "Opportunity" landed, and it was all covered on NASA TV live! Unfortunately I missed it as I was helping with sound at my church. (if you are interested a band called Iron + Clay were playing).
despite missing the live event, there are a lot of briefings happening, where mars rover technicians talk about what has happened and answer questions from the media.
Highly worth listening to...
Its also interesting from a personal perspective, as you hear reporter ask questions, and then can go on the internet (eg Space.com) and read the stories they wrote. This is goes to prove how truely revolutionary the internet is. Never in the history of Man has this sort of thing been possible.
Anyway I'm going back to watch more!
James
If you have been following it at all you will know that nasa has had trouble contacting/controlling its first Rover "Spirit".
Just today they have started to make progress with diagnosed the fault. Putting the errors down to some type of flash memory issue.
But perhaps more exiting is that just recently the second rover "Opportunity" landed, and it was all covered on NASA TV live! Unfortunately I missed it as I was helping with sound at my church. (if you are interested a band called Iron + Clay were playing).
despite missing the live event, there are a lot of briefings happening, where mars rover technicians talk about what has happened and answer questions from the media.
Highly worth listening to...
Its also interesting from a personal perspective, as you hear reporter ask questions, and then can go on the internet (eg Space.com) and read the stories they wrote. This is goes to prove how truely revolutionary the internet is. Never in the history of Man has this sort of thing been possible.
Anyway I'm going back to watch more!
James
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