skates=grafs
Join Date: May 2005
Location: New York
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Space Pirate
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
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I was watching the streaming NASA feed, but was getting tired of the repeated snippets with the woman interviewing people, and anxious that the time for landing was nearing, so on a whim I hit the "Play" button over to the right of the play window on the off chance that it might be a different feed, and in a few seconds I was suddenly "caught up" with real events and listening as they counted down the distance of the lander from the ground until she was down. Not a very coherent production... no narrative structure or guidance for the viewer.
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Veteran Member
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Here's the essential bits.
Mission Control footage of the people involved experiencing the landing. I love this stuff! |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Two false-colour images, and some greyscale, with links to higher res and/or RAW data
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Left and Right eye stereo images of the footpad. Click for link to zoomable image viewer (with detailed rollover image captions). Solar panel Rover deck with BioBarrier on arm retracted Full Image Gallery All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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Amazing, amazing stuff.
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skates=grafs
Join Date: May 2005
Location: New York
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Because streaming has never really worked in Flip4Mac for me...amazing since it's a 2 year old product. I used IE7 in Parallels to watch the stream. |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
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looks like there are very few options to hide from dust storms...
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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MRO catches Phoenix during EDL
They noted that this was an image rushed for the press briefing, and that with a bit of processing, they'll likely have an even sharper version of this one in a few days. Given that you can see soil, backshell, chute, and strings already (presumingly while doing thousands of mph - they're checking timestamp) tough to see how they can improve much... impressive already. Quote:
All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. Last edited by curiousuburb : 2008-05-27 at 15:24. |
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Space Pirate
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
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Off Topic Re: Flip-4-Mac:
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
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JTA |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Today's briefing had new b&w orbiter images of the descent over Heimdall crater
as well as false-colour shots of 'parachute and backshell', , 'heatshield and bounce mark' on the surface Ed Weiler's 'polar bear' white spot on the horizon in one of the Phoenix images looks like it's backshell (heatshields don't ablate to white). Chute must be out of shot or below terrain. Both were discussed, but I only got home for the end of today's briefing. Also released from the friendly orbiter folks today, this colourized portrait. Press briefing might replay around 7pm EDT All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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Did I hear correctly that they're having trouble with the robotic arm? That would blow festering martian balls.
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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I know they try to delay movement during the initial deploy until noon or more to let the grease heat up and give the joints a chance.
You can now get a Phoenix weather widget for Dashboard -112°F/-80°C! That'll make joints cranky. Even some canucks*, eh. * Part of the meteorological station is Canadian, eh? We're secretly testing for beer in the martian atmosphere. Martian ice. Too bad no stick and puck, eh? All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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reticulating your mom
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Call me nuts, but it sounds like the lander has some pretty shitty computing hardware - 33 Mhz clock rate? VxWorks? The router under my desk has better specs (and incidentally also uses VxWorks).
What prevents NASA from using something a little faster - surely it would allow for more intensive imaging (perhaps a video feed)? You ask me for a hamburger. |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
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If you think that's bad, your eyes would pop and your brane asplode if you knew what was in current military hardware.
When you're going for rugged, you use what works, what is known, and what is as absolutely rock solid as possible. |
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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Yah I don't get that at all. I know the space shuttle has some ancient computers in it too. I don't really understand why that is, though I realize for most single function space flight computers, a 3 GHz Xeon is not required. I guess the math is [relatively simple enough] for some operations that it makes sense to have a very slow, low-heat chip (that will still do the math quick anyway).
...into the light of a dark black night. |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
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Well, part of it is simple physics - the finer the traces on a chip, the easier they are blown apart by stray radiation. So 45nm chips? Ha. You want chips that are a couple steps removed from 8088s.
Secondly, you want hardware that *every possible boundary case has been found and documented* - which means nothing new or even remotely recent. Up until a just a handful of years ago, the Shuttles flew on computers with about the same power as an Apple ][+. Seriously. |
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Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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Yup. What Kickaha said. The radiation that passes through you in space would wreak havoc on modern chips without sufficient shielding (which would surely add significant payload).
That we send such complicated devices into space using such "outdated" technology is nothing short of an engineering miracle. The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting. |
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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You guys are computer genii. I hadn't thought of the raditiation-pwns-nano-circuitry aspect. Does the same hold true for fighter jets to some degree (more radiation up thar)? I think I read somewhere that even those aircraft use somewhat dated cpus to get things done....
...into the light of a dark black night. |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
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Yup. In fact, most front-line electronics are radiation-hardened. This means: coarser traces, thicker traces, and shielding. All of which are the opposite of what you want in (most) consumer applications.
Add to that, that a fighter flying now was likely built two decades ago, and designed a decade or two before *that* and you get a feel for what level of technology is in those things. They upgrade them periodically, but very carefully, and very slowly. These are scenarios where it has to be rock-solid. |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Ice, Ice, Baby
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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That is so bad-ass. How cool is that... we *landed* on top of a patch of ice (who knows how prevalent or patchy it is. Just think if we'd landed in a spot where there was none and no uncovered areas nearby we might assume there was none). Martian snow-cone time! Did they including the syrupy flavor mixes on the lander for taste testing? ...into the light of a dark black night. |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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err.. sounds like my television on channel 1.
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Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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I'm seriously loving those color composite photos there. Exciting stuff!
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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[bugs]ww-watah.... I gotta have WATAH![/bugs]
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Press conference just confirmed... water found. Wo0t!!¡!
Phoenix and JPL web servers are getting hammered with traffic at the moment, but I'll throw the link up as soon as they return. Quote:
All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. Last edited by curiousuburb : 2008-07-31 at 17:00. Reason: Link added |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Phoenix is now pining for the fjords.
But lots of good science, and plenty of data to keep researchers busy. And who knows... maybe spring will give it an eponymous last hurrah. All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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Yeah, I just read a similar article yesterday. It was all expected, of course. As for any hope of it returning to life after the winter, I'm not holding any. The batteries will likely be destroyed by the cold and the craft itself may be crushed by frozen CO2 that may accumulate throughout the winter.
The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting. |
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