[FthrJACK]

At around 20 minutes after Spirit was due to land on the martian surface at 4.35am GMT, Nasa recieved the call it had been waiting for.

First signals from the Mars rover, dubbed "spirit" suggest all went well in the landing, involving the rover having to reduce its speed from around 12,000mph to a dead stop in its 6 minute decent.

Shortly Mars Odyssey is due to pass over the landing site and should be able to send more data back to Earth, possibly even some images from the rovers multitude of cameras.

Click below to play
"Live 24x7 NASA TV"
in a standalone Windows Media Player

http://www.space.com...47_nasatv_2.asx

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/rrg2.p...coder/nasatv.rm

MSFN.Org - where people go to know!

[MSNwar]

Truely amazing technology event! Been watching the NASA briefing that includes black-n-white photos with color photos to come later tomorrow. According to NASA everything went "better" than expected and it appears that we will have years of data to evaluate.

Congrats to NASA and everyone involved.

[FthrJACK]

all raw images can be sean on this page, not just the good press release shots:
http://marsrovers.jp...all/spirit.html

[Crispy]

Anyone konw why they're in black 'n white? ... Is it just to speed up the interplanitary downloading process, or what?

[FthrJACK]

its because they are just the initial images sent by the rover. not all its systems are turned on yet, and also as you said., less data to send needs less power and is faster to send, wait till its properly linked up with odyssey and its systems are all tested and activated for some really stunning high res images, higher res than ever taken before.

you wouldnt want to risk wasting power if say... the solar panels where damaged or not properly opened yet.

The rovers stereo cams stand at about 5ft off the ground when the arm is up, should give some great views of the surface.

[MSNwar]

First Look at Spirit on Mars

This mosaic image taken by the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a 360 degree panoramic view of the rover on the surface of Mars.

Image credit: NASA/JPL
Browse Image

[Carmon]

Quote

Crispy Posted on Jan 4 2004, 01:19 PM
  Anyone konw why they're in black 'n white? ... Is it just to speed up the interplanitary downloading process, or what?

they didnt have enuff money 4 colour film lmao but still i adore Space and i wish one dat i cud go up there and see the world below

[gamehead200]

So that's Mars!? I was expecting some aliens! :ow:

[jdeboeck]

I think images are in black and white because a CCD is black and white. Digital color images with single CCD use a color pattern that is over the CCD and demosaicing will give the color image, but also less resolution. When the images are black and white, they're just going for resolution...

Also Mars' atmosphere is different and the color on the picture may not look accurate to us. They'll just color it in later, so it looks like everyone thinks it looks (or maybe just a tad different)

[FthrJACK]

They are black and white to save power, be taken quickly, transmitted quickly, the images taken are all of the lander and the rover ontop, so the team can check the crafts condition and look for problems. they arent meant to be aesthetically pleasing.

The color images to be taken shortly are very high res, the cameras on the rover are amazing, just wait and see.

More Images from the Rover: http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/s.../20040104b.html

Story below is from BBC News:

Quote

Scientists at the US space agency Nasa are trying to establish a direct communications link with the Spirit probe that landed on Mars on Sunday. At present, they are only able to communicate with the robotic vehicle indirectly, via a satellite in orbit around the planet.

Scientists are preparing to get the probe to stand upright. They say everything seems to be working well. The robot is to seek signs that Mars was once capable of supporting life. Scientists are trying to establish which direction to head off in when the six-wheeled robot makes its first tentative moves on the planet.

They are waiting for higher quality images to guide them so as to avoid any dangerous craters or boulders.
 
The rover is currently folded up on its landing pad and will not start driving around on the surface for at least a week or roughly nine sols. A sol is a Martian day. There are concerns about a dark object lodged against one corner of the craft which might block its path. The object may be a dirty piece of one of the air bags that cushioned its landing, scientists say.

Spirit has already sent back its first images of the Martian surface and it is expected that colour photographs will follow. The pictures show the barren, rock-strewn landscape around the rover. Engineers are deploying its solar panels as the sun rises to power it for exploration.

And to give you an idea of the size of the Aeroshell that parachutted down with the rover folded up inside, heres a piccy of it being sealed up with people stood next to it:

Attached File(s)

•  03pd0233_br.jpg (37.68K)
  Number of downloads: 0

[Snoop]

Looks like the arizona desert to me
and they never landed on the moon either!

[Carmon]

Quote

gamehead200 Posted on Jan 5 2004, 12:52 AM
  So that's Mars!? I was expecting some aliens!   

lol anit it a choclate bar? lol

[FthrJACK]

Get your 3D Glasses out for this one:

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/s...5a/PIA04993.jpg

[MSNwar]

Jan 5 2004
Seeing Rust

The rust color of the martian landscape is apparent in this low-resolution thumbnail image taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. This image is part of a larger image currently stored onboard the rover in its memory.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
Browse Image (21 kB)

Attached File(s)

•  marslandscapethnmbnail.jpg (1.3K)
  Number of downloads: 0

[FthrJACK]

From BBC News:

Quote

The robotic probe Spirit has sent back its first colour images of Mars.
The pictures of the dusty and rocky surface are the most detailed ever obtained by a lander on the planet.

US space agency scientists report that the rover is in excellent health as they continue to prepare it for its mission to explore Gusev Crater.

The European Space Agency will make an attempt on Wednesday to contact the missing British-built lander Beagle 2 with its mothership Mars Express.

Describing the first colour images from Spirit, Jim Bell, of Cornell University and a member of the mission science team, said he was knocked out by their quality.

Take a look at one of these images, this ones 8mb in size and is a mosaic made up of smaller images:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...6a/PIA04995.jpg

Same image but smaller for 56k weaklings:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...PIA04995_br.jpg

you can see the marks left by the landers air bags as it rolled to rest, bottom right of the image (not so obvious on 56k version)

[Carmon]

Quote

Looks like the arizona desert to me
and they never landed on the moon either! 

U see dat TV program Too then lol

[gamehead200]

The technology used to take pics of Mars was developed in my province!