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 ...
I'll gladly bear the title "kooky".
They might be intelligent but they have real poor judgment.
Analyzation of data is what it is all about. Data is gathered and considered and it leads to a finding of never happened.
That buys zero when talking to someone who was there. Not everybody is Buzz Aldrin, and he was there: talk to him. But, others were there, either making the gadgets and systems used in the moon landings, or doing weekend bar-be-ques with those very people. Deduce all you want. It is worth nothing.
Or simply wear too much aluminum foil to be affected by the government's mind control beams like the rest of us.
We are quite near the HAARP installation in Alaska, and in being armored against those vile emanations we are immune to subtle influences from FedGov. Rowdy Roddy said to put the glasses on, and we did and we can see the whole business. Put the glasses on!
If my memory is correct he is the one who went into a tirade when someone asked him if he really landed on the moon. I would say that he would not be a reliable witness. Throw that case out.
You'd be surprised by how all this tin foil separates government facts from government fiction. It really is amazing.
I have met Buzz Aldrin. And his pretty wife. They are A-ok in my book. Just so you know.
Psst. 4th rock.
Regarding Bipolar Disorder: The name of Buzz Aldrin appears on one list after another of celebrities with bipolar disorder. However, in reviewing actual interviews and biographies on the topic of his struggles with mental illness, Buzz only specifically addresses depression and alcoholism.
Dr. Robert Epstein interviewed Buzz Aldrin for an article in Psychology Today. During this discussion, Buzz told Dr. Epstein that “What I felt was depression. There were also family situations developing at that time. My life was moving in one direction, and my family was going in the other. That eventually led to a divorce and the split up of the family. But there was another trait that had been hidden. Everyone was drinking, and I was too.”
In an article entitled “Three Voyagers to the Moon: Life After Making History on TV” for the July 17, 1994, edition of the New York Times, John Noble Wilford addressed Buzz Aldrin’s emotional difficulties that developed after his historic space flights. Wilford wrote, “Mr. Aldrin’s problems began almost immediately as he struggled to adjust to life in the limelight. This made him increasingly uncomfortable, which led to erratic behavior and eventually depression and alcoholism … In any event, he was hospitalized for severe depression” (p. 21).
Of significant note is the fact that Aldrin is a true hero, a fantastic example of perseverance and achievement. “Buzz Aldrin accomplished an even bigger feat than walking on the moon - overcoming alcoholism and depression” (Epstein, 2001). Of this success Aldrin states, “Recovery was not easy. Perhaps the most challenging turnaround was accepting the need for assistance and help. Looking back at it now--with over 22 years of sobriety--this was probably one of my greatest challenges. But it has also been one of the most satisfying because it has given me a sense of comfort and ease with where I am now” (Epstein, 2001).
Updated: January 4, 2005
*woops* removes glasses and slinks under desk...
is analyzation the same thing as analysis?
Aldrin is not the only one I know who worked on the Apollo program or knows some who worked on the Apollo program. There are hundreds of thousands of us. I could have worked on it myself, but already had a more challenging job in the general space program.
I didnt want to anger the god of war, so I whispered his name? Why did you capitalize Earth but not mars? :-)
Oh, okay. Wouldn't do to anger the god of war. Do you think Marseilles is named for the god of war? It might be.
you stole my tag line!!!!!! ;^>
Great minds must think alike. However, I do think that finding and photographing the old Viking Lander was a side effect, not a primary mission of the MRO.
Hey, don't knock it. That's how Australia got started.
(Joking! Don't hit me!)
Actually, from my bureau of useless trivia which takes up otherwise useful space in my brain, Marseilles was originally a greek colony named Massalia, which the Romans called Massilia. I guess the name got corrupted over time. Perhaps in a thousand years Philadelphia will be known as Fluffy-Doll?
If so, don't tell the French. They'll surrender to themselves.
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