Rover reaches Martian crater destination - finally

Source: AP

(CBS/AP)

NASA's surviving Mars rover has made it to the rim of Endeavour crater after a nearly three-year trek across the surface of the red planet.

The space agency said in a statement that the six-wheel Opportunity rover signaled Tuesday that it had arrived at a location on the rim that's been named Spirit Point in honor of Opportunity's twin, the rover Spirit that fell silent last year.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/10/scitech/main20090693.shtml

---

:scared:

The soil, anyway. Minus Kangaroos.

Reproducing the color of Mars as a human might see it turns out to be surprisingly difficult, particularly since almost all of the craft that have landed on the surface use infrared filters instead of red filters, the better to help geologists identify what kind of rocks they're looking at. It's pretty easy to spot in the old Viking photos, which often have a good old Red, White and Purple flag in the foreground.

NASA has never made a secret about this, but that hasn't stopped folks from accusing NASA of "marsing up" their photographs. Well, they do, for the scientists who can use that additional color saturation to make guesses about the composition of the rocks they see.

If you'd like to see some attempts to bring the photos back to a "true color" image, you can look at a lot of pictures of the same damned color wheel http://areo.info/mer/">here. The color stripe in the south east corner of the wheel is blue on earth, but oftentimes the calibration image shows it as red, due to the IR filters and a bunch of other factors I don't pretend to fully understand.

Bottom line: Mars is Jimmy Carter red, not George Bush red. Yes, that is a redneck joke.

:hi:

I thought you said "ROVE reaches Martian crater destination."

It would have been just the place for him.

Look what they have done here!

Didn't want him there.

Apparently, they've been watching him on Earth the last couple of decades...

:)

Well done, NASA

sure what benefits we get other than knowledge but still am in awe of their accomplishments.

What we "get" from this is an understanding of how these other worlds function. Info that we can use to understand how our home does. Beyond that, the cutting edge technologies developed to execute these fantastic feats of science and engineering really DO "trickle down" into advancing technology for we earthlings. What they continue to do is done for FAR MORE than the proof that they can.

and what libertarians won't believe it can do

Mars needs a vacuuming before it becomes habitable. That red dust is ground so fine I'm surprised that alone hasn't wasted the rover.

turn on the windshield wipers.

is how casually we view a pic of Mars.

Congrats to whoever built this...

HA HA

I so love the Mars exploration story -- incredibly imagery, and little Rovers-that-could. :)

git!

Thanks for the chuckle.

At least this stimulates imagination and inspires.

Great picture.

some wise, conscious Mars-beings greeted the little Endeavor as a hero. With new batteries and components and a good bath.

that would be awesome.

What a world we like in. I'm sorry I won't be around to witness the achievements of the next 100 years...that is if the earth survives.

Only these fuzzy pictures taken by feeble little robots.

Three years to go 11 miles. A healthy human could do that in one afternoon. On foot. In a space suit.

...and you realize that no human in a spacesuit could last for 3 years on Mars.

Tortoise and hare. The tortoise is usually the better bet.

:D

:yoiks:


...sorry long day.


Very cool, actually. K&R

They apparently did a first rate job on this project. Credit where credit is due. Designed and built in the USA.