Mars Curiosity's first images

Is that... a Tcl/Tk app being run in GNOME?

After loving the emotional response from the team, I actually opened one of these images in my browser and it hit me: there are bits in the memory of my computer right now that are a function of bits on Mars.

That's really cool. Would love it if they had some video, or alternatively made a visualization of the entire landing sequence using received data. Like for instance a video of the telemetry you took screenshots of.

That is the first time I've seen a real-life useful computer display actually look like something they dream up in the movies.

(counterexamples welcome!)

I missed the landing sequence. Is there a video recording available somewhere ?

Why are these not games yet?

HN has dozens of people capable of creating a nice lunar lander / mars lander sim.

State #38: "Done"

Extend your time window just a bit, and the number increases to 3:

- Mars rover

- Higss boson

- First commercial docking with ISS

Major human achievement? IIRC there have been rovers landed on Mars before numerous times.

"Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?"

So glad I watched. Anyone else hear the F bomb and 'Holy Shit'?

Fantastic quote, I think that symbolises what NASA have accomplished, and what inspiration it should bring to everyone who knows about it.

Correction: I used the front hazcam images from http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/

Personally, I think the tax payers of the United States deserve a round of applause from the rest of us for funding such a mission. It's not that other countries can't do this - we just don't want to pay for it...

Bragging to whom?

Has anyone mirrored these yet?

What is "F5ed"?

I was thinking exactly the same thing, kind of embarassed because it feels 'spoiled' (not the right word but can't find any better). Glad I'm not alone on this. My hopes are that this is simply my lack of understanding and that it's simply night there now (does it work like that?), or that not all systems are up and running yet.

We'll get better hi-res images, in color, later. They did after all just exclaim "We got thumbnails!" when the first image arrived.

These images are from a couple of the four pairs of Hazard Avoidance Cameras (HazCams) installed around the body of the rover. Their function is primarily to provide stereoscopic images for the rover's machine vision to analyze, enabling the rover to autonomously steer itself to a degree and halt if an unexpected hazard (for instance, a large boulder) comes up during movement.

The HazCams also had clear lens covers in place to protect the lenses from all the dust blown around by the landing rockets. These were not yet removed in the very first images -- indeed, the reason they're clear is that even if for some reason a cover gets stuck, a dusty image is better than no image at all.

Moreover, as the first communications opportunity was rather short, and the high-bandwidth directional antenna is not yet unfolded, there was simply no bandwidth available to downlink very high-resolution images.

The mast of the rover, containing the high-resolution NavCams and MastCams, is still folded up. If all goes well, it will be raised in a couple of days and higher-res images beamed up in due course.

Here's a nice article on Curiosity's various cameras: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-226

The fact that there were any images at all is a testament to the awesome engineering done on the MSL project. There was no guaranty that any images would be available from the Hazcams. The images were broadcast up to Opportunity orbiting above because the MSL was on the other side of Mars and does not have a direct line to Earth. The Opportunity was also about to go over the horizon so it also was going to lose contact. It was a masterful ballet of engineering and precision timing. What a great achievement.

I believe they said 232 meters at one point, not sure if that was 100% confirmed though

Seems the picture is down, any mirror?

I believe this is the shadow of the rover.

That's a photo of the ground with the rover's shadow projected onto it by some backlighting, suggesting that the specific camera that took that photo is facing away from the sun and down towards the ground. Because there's no sky present in that shot, the exposure is set so that the ground is bright and the shadow is darker.

Meanwhile, if you look at the other photos with the horizon present (e.g. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=RLA_39750... ), the ground is dark because in order to capture the details in the bright sky, the exposure has to be adjusted so that less total light is captured (usually by using a faster shutter speed). Otherwise, you'd blow out the sky and get no details there.

It looks like the dynamic range of these cameras is limited, so keep that in mind when looking at any photos that come out of them. Something that's bright in one shot might be extremely dark in another, depending on its relative brightness compared to other parts of the scene. Take a look at the last few rear camera shots with the sun in them:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=0

The sun causes all the sky detail from the previous rear camera shots to appear black, since its overwhelming brightness requires the exposure to be extremely brief.

Anyway, I hope that gives you a better idea of what to expect from these cameras and how to interpret the photos.

If it helps there wasn't really anything to see, so to speak. Watching it live was more of an emotional viewing than a technical one.

They committed ("non-reversible changes" on the livestream) to the landing about 20, 30 minutes prior to entry.

I think they were there in case of problems. Plus the post landing checklist, which they are doing now.

What did you expect them to do? Go home and go to sleep and come back in the morning to check the logs? Come on. They'd hardly close their eyes for a second with all the excitement.

They're all there monitoring the various systems because they're all responsible for various components of an incredibly complex piece of equipment.

Assuming the landing goes well, they all still need to be there to continually monitor the operation of the systems they're responsible for and provide feedback if things don't like how they expected - it's not just about landing there.

This is normal even when releasing a tiny piece of software; it's hardly surprising NASA do the same for a multi-billion dollar project.

They made it very clear in the press conferences earlier in the day that they have no more control during EDL than the viewer watching it at home.

I don't think the control room was "nothing but show." They certainly could have all gone home, but given the time and energy invested in this mission over the last decade, It was importent to monitor the event as it happened even if it cannot be controlled.

For the landing process, they were watching it unfold automatically and irreversibly on the 14-minute relativistic delay, just like us.

But I don't think that means their assembly there was "just for show". That's the best place to see every detail of how well things matched plans: to see discrepancies, in context and with collaborating peers, as soon as possible.

And now that it's down, there could be info that requires adaptive action. Even though interpreting such new data, devising a plan, and sending instructions would take hours or days, it's still a "control" function, just a slow and deliberate one.

It was acknowledged that they didn't have any direct control over the landing. However, there's lots of work to be done immediately after and most obviously, it's incredibly exciting to see the data as soon as it is available and to know that years and years of hard work executed successfully.

Additionally, watching a room full of engineers "do their thing" does a lot to get the average layman excited about the research and science and may get schoolkids excited about the possibilities of space travel, STEM, etc.

EDL is scripted, but there has been activity before tonight, and as another poster said, there is activity after landing. As the cruise phase comes to an end, there have been more and more tweaks to get the landing ellipse as tight as possible. In addition, there are system checkouts, and coordination of the orbiters that relay telemetry, in advance of the landing. It was not at all certain that the images could be produced right away.

Ugh. If you've ever worked on a project with more than 1 person, you'd understand why... it's about the team and the work they'd done over the last few years. Even if they had no direct "joystick" control over the procedure, there was plenty of work happening immediately after the landing. I'm sure most of those people didn't have to actually be there for that work, but anybody working on the project wants to be there...

I saw that too, I don't know what it was.

Best guess is, they talked about finding a flat surface to land on, so my guess is that's a grid showing the options.

First you need a time machine.

These types of trickle down are not identified till much later. If you knew what it would be in advance you wouldn't need it to trickle down - you could just use or develop it directly.

Genuine excitement.

The first major one is all the kids watching this who are saying to themselves:

THIS IS AWESOME, I WANT TO BE AN ENGINEER!

For one, the robot gearing was designed with zero backlash (well +/- 0.000001") using a novel set of EDMachining techniques developed to achieve this accuracy virtually no part distortion - which was reported in literature and trade journals. Eventually, this could lead to super precision/efficient mechanical systems in scientific instruments, micro-robotics, etc.

Also - come on a SkyCrane!?!?

the realization that none of the people involved in making this happen will ever be getting 1b dollars by facebook in a buyout for their work.

the realization that none of the people involved in making this happen will ever be on a Forbes 500 list.

and still they did it. because they love it, it is progress, science, exploration. and not a way to ruin pics with a filter.

I truly hope curiosity uncovers some new friends for us earthlings!

If I had kids, I'd definitely let them stay up to watch this and skip the first half of the school day.

Not specifically, but it has been used for many years by NASA missions, so there is a lot of experience and knowledge behind it in this kind of thing.

Scientists were making web pages when you was in diapers, kid. I was there, working at Rockwell in '94.

They have at least one color camera that "is like a consumer point and shoot" on the mast. The pictures released are from the very technically-limited hazard cams, which are really only for the drivers to see what they have to deal with.

Within a week we should see some full-color images coming in.

There is a color camera on it. It's just not deployed yet.

https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/232412416728788992

As I understand they do, but even if you had it been deployed seconds after it touched down, the wait for returning images would have been a while. Packet radio from that distance is no joke.

From Earth I'd rather have a few crappy thumbnails to confirm that the vehicle wasn't upside down or something in a few minutes than something National Geographic worthy in a few days.