
Mars Curiosity's first images - suprgeek
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/
======
artursapek
From a screen recording I took: <http://i.imgur.com/C5Y6P.jpg>

I actually shed a tear. That was beautiful.

Edit: Raw images being put on Twitter by NASA:

<http://p.twimg.com/Azl6LRUCMAAU1GK.jpg:large>

<http://p.twimg.com/Azl9hyXCEAE5_Hw.jpg:large>

<http://p.twimg.com/Azl7LXOCUAAJT5z.jpg:large>

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

~~~
hartror
That was my thought as well as I was watching the coverage. Not surprising
given there are a lot of old school engineers at NASA/JPL.

~~~
mbell
Here is the answer, it was written quite a while ago judging by the missions
it has been used on:
<http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/5697>

------
joering2
I took those during landing sequence..

<http://i45.tinypic.com/353eemc.jpg>

<http://i46.tinypic.com/ej95s5.png>

<http://i49.tinypic.com/2qicoqq.png>

<http://i50.tinypic.com/2hd8j13.png>

edit: its just fun to watch those. also, according to NASA there is 500,000
lines of code behind those 38 steps.. would love to see some parts of it!

~~~
marvin
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.

~~~
Wingman4l7
An excellent, data-rich visualization was done for the Huygens probe that
landed on Saturn's moon Titan as part of the Cassini-Huygens mission:
[http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia0811...](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia08117.html)

~~~
marvin
Exactly something like that I am looking for, thanks

------
cs702
I can't help but share the headline in The New Yorker's _Fake News & Political
Satire_ section: "Mars Rover Should Not Get So Much Attention, Say Higgs-Boson
Scientists."[1]

Humor aside, this is a sign that we're living in interesting times: two major
human achievements occurring within a few weeks of each other. All I can say
is, wow. I love it.

\--

[1]
[http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/08...](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/08/mars-
rover-should-not-get-so-much-attention-say-higgs-boson-scientists.html)

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

\- Mars rover

\- Higss boson

\- First commercial docking with ISS

------
patdennis
My god, the energy in that room was amazing. Just watching how happy they were
was worth staying up late for.

~~~
JabavuAdams
"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?"

~~~
JumpCrisscross
I figured a paraphrasing along the lines of "Do you want to sell shiny
phones..." or "Do you want to work on ways to share cat pictures..." would be
more appropriate.

~~~
jshen
My shiny phone has added enormous value to my life. Cat pictures not so much.

------
srik
"Far better it is, _to dare mighty things_ ,

to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure

than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much

because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

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

------
nitrogen
In 3D: <http://i.imgur.com/PyxeK.jpg>

Edit: colorized version as it might look on Earth, with significant artistic
license taken (the Martian sky is less interesting [0]):
<http://i.imgur.com/oRCVX.jpg> (updated with wheel colors)

I've distorted and level adjusted the images to my aesthetic taste, and
assembled the rear hazcam images into a stereo pair for RDS-style viewing.
Zoom _out_ in your browser or image viewer, get close-ish to the screen, then
look _through_ the monitor until the red dots (or any other parts of the
images) are in alignment. Continue to zoom in or out until your eyes are
somewhat comfortable.

It is a privilege to be one of the first human beings to see this section of
Mars in 3D photos.

[0] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_surface_color>

~~~
nitrogen
Correction: I used the _front_ hazcam images from
<http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/>

------
fl3tch
It's times like this that I think everyone can be proud to be part of the
human race.

~~~
arethuza
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...

~~~
mattdeboard
Don't clap too long, NASA has long been on the funding chopping block, and
there are far too many who would like to see it eliminated completely. They
don't care that they are putting vehicles on Mars. They're too myopic to even
think about what the future might look like.

2.5 billion dollars to put Curiosity on Mars. That's is a little more than
double of what NBC paid to air the Olympics[1]. Imagine what they could do if
we doubled their budget from half a percent of the federal budget[2] to 1%.

1\. [http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics-fans-ways-
circumvent-n...](http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics-fans-ways-circumvent-
nbcs-online-control-010417267--oly.html)

2\.
[http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/622643main_FY%2013%20Budget%20Presen...](http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/622643main_FY%2013%20Budget%20Presentation.pdf)

~~~
arethuza
So the UK could have had 6 Curiosity rovers for the price of the Olympics....

NB I do think the Olympics has been a good thing - but I do wonder about the
value for money....

~~~
tinco
That the price was 10 billion does not mean the cost was that. They might even
make a profit since they sell the sponsorships, broadcasting rights and
tickets not to mention the stimulus of the local economy.

Sinking 2 billion into something that yields no direct monetary profit, that's
a bold move for any country. They did not even sell broadcasting rights!

~~~
drgath
> Sinking 2 billion into something that yields no direct monetary profit,
> that's a bold move for any country.

Correct that there is no direct return on investment. However, some experts
have claimed for every dollar spent on the Apollo program, we got $10 back in
public benefit. It's really difficult to measure this stuff accurately, but
the point to take away is that there is quite a lot to gained in technology,
PR, and cash by doing inspiring & challenging science.

~~~
evincarofautumn
That’s why solving hard technical problems can be a good business move—it’s
not necessarily the solutions themselves, but the by-products of creating
those solutions that have lasting value.

------
thomson
This tweet reminded me of what's next:

"RT @DanielBrian: I love that @MarCuriosity launched Nov '11 but
@NewHorizons2015 launched '06 & won't arrive @Pluto til 2015! Space is huge!"

[https://twitter.com/NewHorizons2015/status/23236225947574272...](https://twitter.com/NewHorizons2015/status/232362259475742720)

New Horzons is the spacecraft currently on its way to Pluto--it's expected to
be in range in about three years or so.

------
erikstarck
That's one small step for a robot, but a giant leap for robotkind.

------
glimcat
Images are up now on the raw feed. They're getting F5ed hard, so actually
seeing anything may take a bit.

<http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/>

Images are grouped by Martian solar days (sol 0 == day 0, length 24h 39.6m).

~~~
dfc
What is "F5ed"?

~~~
kyberias
Everyone refreshing their browsers by pressing F5. :)

~~~
dfc
People move their hand to F5 when they can stay close to home and hit C-r?

~~~
viraptor
That only works with an Emacs pinky. ;)

~~~
Deestan
For left-CTRL you can often just rest your hand on the CTRL while hitting the
key with the index finger. :)

~~~
jlgreco
Hard to do if the keys on your laptop keyboard are flush with the palm rest.

------
Nux
Great historic event; congratulations to all involved. As for the images, hate
to be a party pooper, but wasn't this thing supposed to be state of the art
technology? What's with the shitty image quality?

~~~
larrydag
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.

~~~
Destroyer661
That would be Odyssey, not Opportunity. Opportunity is the rover =)

------
mikeknoop
From the other thread:
[https://dl.dropbox.com/u/76008/Screenshot%20from%202012-08-0...](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/76008/Screenshot%20from%202012-08-05%2022%3A38%3A06.png)

------
jessriedel
Does anyone know how close to their target landing spot they reached?

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

~~~
jessriedel
Wow. According to Wikipedia, their elliptical landing zone was 20km by 7 km.
That puts them in the center 2% of that zone.

------
bfe
What a great achievement of heroic engineering! I can't wait to watch what
comes next.

------
shin_lao
And in a couple of days, if everything goes fine, we'll have a couple of
color, HD pictures of Mars. I'm very excited about it.

------
noinput
One I took as well. So fantastic <http://instagr.am/p/N-bAAmrEhM/>

------
jon6
What are those pictures of? This one

[http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-
images/workspace/apss/ORT-1...](http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-
images/workspace/apss/ORT-14/00000/opgs/edr/fcam/FRA_397504842EDR_F0010000AUT_04096Z_-
thm.jpg)

Looks like a building with a garage door on it and some random pipes sticking
out.

~~~
akash2005
Seems the picture is down, any mirror?

~~~
shiftb
[http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=FRA_39750...](http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=FRA_397502305EDR_D0010000AUT_04096M_&s=0)

I see the same thing.

~~~
DanBC
That image is taken with the front right Hazcam.

Here's an image of Curiosity, so maybe you can work out the shadow form this?

(<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120803.html>)

------
VMG
the Motif interface is a nice touch

------
Achshar
<http://pic.twitter.com/894ouNJt>

<http://pic.twitter.com/qSDmNS9H>

The page has not been updated yet as of now.

------
goatforce5
As an aside, their Twitter account mentions that it was an observatory in
Australia that was relaying the signals from Mars:

<http://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/232337630711382017>

As it happens, it was an Australian observatory that relayed the first video
of Armstrong walking on the moon. There was a fun movie made (made by the
D-Generation/Working Dog guys) based on that:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dish>

------
hrayr
I've been watching for 3 hours, I accidentally closed my browser during the
sky crane step, by the time I opened the ustream feed, they were already
cheering... I missed out.

~~~
skeletonjelly
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.

------
kooshball
They're doing a live press conference now.

<http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/mars/curiosity_news3.html>

------
haeikou
I had the impression that the whole "control" room was nothing but show.
Estimating the travelling times of a radio wave, nobody on earth could have
had any control about the spacecraft, and none of the engineers in the control
room could have done anything other than watch.

So if anybody is more involved into the mission than I am ... is my impression
correct, or were there actual fallback mechanisms that these people could have
decided upon?

~~~
lusr
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.

------
mchusma
Interesting quote from NASA about the cost of these images:

“This movie cost you less than seven bucks per American citizen, and look at
the excitement we got,” Dr. Elachi said.

------
angersock
Did anyone grab the image with some purple on it in a grid pattern? I didn't
get a good look at it.

~~~
ars
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.

~~~
angersock
I was figuring it was some sort of compression artifacts, but that makes sense
too.

------
joshontheweb
What innovations from this vehicle can we expect to see trickle down into the
consumer space?

~~~
ars
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.

~~~
rm999
I think the Curiosity team would object to your answer. They've been working
on the project for almost a decade, have spent thousands (millions?) of man-
hours on it, and have written 500,000 lines of code to control it. The dollar
amount that has gone into building it is greater than the value of many
fortune 500 companies!

There are probably some awesome innovations that came out of such a large
project, it's a great question to ask.

~~~
tomjakubowski
Those 500k LOC are _just_ for the EDL. Wonder what they wrote it in,
presumably C? [http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-
releases/2012/ju...](http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-
releases/2012/july/0726-ss-msl.html)

~~~
iamdave
I've been hearing (sic: reading) a few folks suggesting actually python. This
was in the ##curiosity IRC chat this morning during the landing

------
hybrid11
From NASA's twitter, you can see one of Curiosity's wheel in this one:

<https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/232354875189628929>

------
keva161
Well done to the whole team who made this happen! Now go find some aliens!

~~~
cindywu123
I truly hope curiosity uncovers some new friends for us earthlings!

------
DanBC
This is amazing. I hope that school children are given time to watch this. I
hope that parents and teachers have the skills and knowledge to foster the
Curiosity-driven curiosity of those children.

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

------
Bjoern
The Curiosity rover runs on VxWorks. Does anyone know what gives VxWorks an
edge over other (embedded) RTOS systems out there that qualifies it for tasks
like this? Particularly open ones?

~~~
wglb
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.

------
dgdg
Looks like the webpage was created by the Mars scientists themselves. They
should entrust that job to a web designer.

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

~~~
dgdg
That's what I'm saying, they were. They shouldn't. Like CERN announcement in
Comic Sans.

~~~
cutie
The promise of the web was the democratization of publishing... anyone could
do it, cutting out the middle-men. Now you tell us a "professional" has to be
involved, no thanks.

As long as its readable I'm happy. I look at a lot of these professionally
designed sites in the way you do this one, too much. I'd prefer the
traditional black Times on a grey background.

------
smudgy
Incredible, congratulations NASA, what happened today was nothing short of
miraculous.

------
shiftb
Is everyone getting an Unauthorized response now?

------
tocomment
Two billion dollars and they couldn't put a color camera on it :-(

~~~
chucknelson
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.

