

Nasa faked a shuttle image. - muon
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/01/29/nasa-faked-a-shuttle-image/

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ojbyrne
It's a fairly common photographic technique to splice together multiple
different exposures of the same shot. Yes, technically faked, but common.

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mattmcknight
Yeah, it's a composite. There's a follow up[1]. (btw, the article is a send up
of conspiracy theories.)

[1][http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/01/29/ok...](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/01/29/ok-
so-maybe-nasa-didnt-fake-that-image/)

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jcl
The sad thing is: I was fairly sure the cockpit was a bad rendering, but it
turned out to be a photograph.

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KirinDave
Poorly done HDR often looks that way. Search for HDR on flickr and leap down a
few pages, you'll see some ugly, ugly stuff.

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eli
Satire is a difficult art to master. Doubly so on the Internet.

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nuclear_eclipse
Probably the best I've read in quite a while, especially the ending where he
_demands_ that NASA shut down at the exact moment the STS is slated for
retirement. Made my day. :)

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electromagnetic
I would never have got it was sarcasm without it coming from Phil Plait.

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Keyframe
I never thought of it as a real shot - it looked as a promo shot with nice
lighting from the start, why all the fuss?

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jedc
It looked like a full-size simulator to me. Programs like these often create
full-size mock-ups/simulators which look just like the real thing but aren't
functional or are only used for training. It's also easier to take photos of
them.

The NASA caption never mentioned anything about the photo actually being from
the shuttle in space, so this is my guess as to what really happened.

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sam_in_nyc
This was on Reddit a couple of days ago and people pointed this out. This is
about the hundredth time I've seen a link get tossed around, and then a blog
post that regurgitates things already remarked upon from various
discussions...

Someone might as well start a blog that just does exactly that... browser for
URLs and read comments from Reddit, then create blog posts reposting the URL
and rewording the most popular comments. Probably would get a lot of traffic,
especially if done quickly before the link gets tossed from Reddit to Digg et
al... then the blog could submit itself to Digg et al, and get traffic because
the link has already proven itself to be valuable (and comments presumably add
more value to the URL).

I've often thought about taking advantage of this "popular URL" arbitrage:
links get popular within days of each other across Reddit, Digg, et al... why
not automate this for one's benefit? Aggregate links from Reddit, Digg, et al
and figure out where the link has been "underrated." If the link has tons of
upmods on Reddit and has not yet been submitted to Digg, for example, you have
yourself a winner. Just create a blog post about that URL, rephrase some
popular Reddit comments, submit to Digg, and profit from the traffic.

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tptacek
Those aren't stars. Those are dead bugs.

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bmelton
Mostly offtopic, but I thought I'd share the "NASA Water on Mars" picture for
those who hadn't seen it:

[http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0504/WaterOnMars2_gcc_big.jp...](http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0504/WaterOnMars2_gcc_big.jpg)

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josefresco
I totally wanted to upmod you for posting that picture, because I actually
laughed out loud. However this is not Reddit/Digg, nor do I want it to be, so
I'll just leave your comment be.

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palish
Please look at the picture before downvoting josefresco.

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Hexstream
First that would make him want to downmod it even more, second it's obvious by
his reaction that he _has_ looked at it...

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palish
What I meant was, before anyone downvotes josefresco's comment, please look at
the picture.

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notaddicted
I took a quick look at this yesterday. I was not aware that this was supposed
to be real, it looks like a rendering to me. If it is real... ummm shouldn't
someone be driving the boat?

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jerf
In space, Sir Isaac Newton is your co-pilot. He's pretty happy to let you take
a lot of breaks.

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sgk284
He's your co-pilot on earth too, just doesn't let you take any breaks :)

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tsally
Too many people believe that NASA is fake for this to be funny :-p.

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nazgulnarsil
It's true. I've never seen a NASA. Has anyone? I'm inclined to believe that
they don't exist.

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DanielBMarkham
You know, they could have shot it using High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques as
well.

Of course, there would be other tell-tale signs then, like flaring or
clumping. But at least it wouldn't be a composite.

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TweedHeads
Fake, it doesn't have a wheel. How are you supposed to drive that space truck?

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blue1
Now you know why one of the shuttle commanders said that landing is a shuttle
is like landing a brick.

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weegee
that guy is a crackpot. it's a great image, who cares if its been enhanced.
kids probably love it, and they need kids to love NASA.

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jff
Houston this is the Space Shuttle Humor, we're currently set to pass
approximately 1000 miles over weegee's head.

Humor, you are clear for orbit.

