Posted on 12/05/2006 10:18:35 AM PST by blam
Probe's powerful camera spots Vikings on Mars
12:29 05 December 2006
NewScientist.com news service
David Chandler
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spots Spirit's backshell and parachute (Image: NASA)
After three decades lost on the Red Planet, Viking 2's backshell is spotted from space (Image: NASA)
It is a feat millions of times more impressive than finding a needle in a haystack. The new Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted about a dozen spacecraft on the Martian surface and, incredibly, taken pictures of such sharpness that scientists have been able to identify individual rocks that were first photographed by the Viking landers in 1976.
The new series of pictures released late on Monday show both of the Viking landers, never spotted from orbit before, as well as their nearby heat shields and backshells. These are the top and bottom covers of the capsules in which the rovers decended through the Martian atmosphere to land.
The MRO has also found the Mars rover Spirit , the pyramid-shaped structure in which it landed, its backshell and parachute. The satellite probe had already found the rover Opportunity and its landing structure, sending back images within its first week of operations in October 2006.
Picturing the Viking landers from orbit is quite a coup for MRO. Tim Parker, a planetary geologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, told New Scientist that it was possible to clearly identify them by analysing the Martian landscape, even though the images show little detail.
Parker carefully matched rocks and other topographic features seen in the orbital views with those seen images the landers took on the ground. "I found a much better location match" than had been made from earlier orbital pictures, he says. It turns out Viking 1 is about 6 kilometres (3.8 miles) away..
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
So, that's where they are! And here I was looking for them in the END ZONE!
What would be the point?
Finding a needle in a haystack is easy if you use a match to look for it.
You'll never find them there.
Actually it's a Starbucks.
So tell me again, what is the reason that we can't photograph the U.S.flag on the moon?
What would be the point?
To prove it is actually there, some people believe that the moon landings were faked.
Just dang. From the title, I was expecting to see oars on the ships.
Well,
A.) Those people are dumb, and should not be pandered to; and
B.) If they went to all the trouble of faking a multibillion dollar project using 1960s technology, why wouldn't they be able to generate a couple of fake photographs using 21st century photo editing software? In other words, any such pics would be dismissed as fakes by the aforementioned dumb people.
bump for what is sure to be a very funny thread!
lol
The government has so much money that they spend it on stuff liike this and bridges to no-place in Alaska. (rather than reducing the amount taxed - after all they know what best for us, and pictures of space junk are definitely worth more to us than things like food, fuel, etc. We just don't appreciate the value)
I beg to differ. There are some intelligent people who believe the moon landings to be fake. To just dismiss them as dumb is the same arguments that are used against those who believe in creationism.
Parachute? HA!! Like we're gonna believe that! Everyone knows that's the "Woodstock from Peanuts on Mars". It's proof of alien intelligence! NASA's covering it up!!
Childress makes me want Tice back.
If they went to all the trouble of faking a multibillion dollar project using 1960s technology, why wouldn't they be able to generate a couple of fake photographs using 21st century photo editing software? In other words, any such pics would be dismissed as fakes by the aforementioned dumb people.
Yeah, I dunno.
People believe all sorts of different things, go figure.
"I beg to differ. There are some intelligent people who believe the moon landings to be fake. To just dismiss them as dumb is the same arguments that are used against those who believe in creationism."
With all due respect, I'm with the other poster... people who believe the moon landings were faked are kooks.. sometimes you just gotta draw the line and make a judgement call.
ditto
good typo catch or writer thinks landers doth roam.
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