Mars & Beyond

[Rinaldo]

The freshly compiled videos from the Perserverance landing are just beyond this world. Well, literally.

https://www.youtube.com/v/4czjS9h4Fpg

It's comforting to know that something in this world broken by the virus still works like a charm. The ingenuity (pun partially intended) of the people at NASA & JPL is remarkable. Do we have a thread on space exploration? If not, this might be a convenient starting point.

[Szykneij]

Awesome!

It's great to see that excitement over space exploration is back! I remember watching the first Mercury flights launched on TV as a kid and how special they were. They were national events that got huge coverage, but interest in missions diminished over time, especially after the moon landings. On a visit to "Cape Canaveral" a number of years ago, we got to go inside the buildings where the early programs were executed and saw huge computers that had less capacity than the cheap calculators you can buy today. It's amazing what was accomplished so far during this Mars exploration.

[steve ridgway]

They are great videos and I'm relieved to see the rover made it down in one piece. I've enjoyed following space exploration and astronomy since watching the Apollo missions as a kid and am very grateful to NASA for sharing so much freely with the rest of the world. I had a collection of about 200 Moon books 15-20 years ago and still have a few of NASA's Special Publication series with photos from Mercury, Gemini, Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter and Apollo and explanatory text from the USGS geologists.🌓

[MusicTurner]

They are great videos and I'm relieved to see the rover made it down in one piece. I've enjoyed following space exploration and astronomy since watching the Apollo missions as a kid and am very grateful to NASA for sharing so much freely with the rest of the world. I had a collection of about 200 Moon books 15-20 years ago and still have a few of NASA's Special Publication series with photos from Mercury, Gemini, Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter and Apollo and explanatory text from the USGS geologists.🌓

That's cool.

[Szykneij]

They are great videos and I'm relieved to see the rover made it down in one piece. I've enjoyed following space exploration and astronomy since watching the Apollo missions as a kid and am very grateful to NASA for sharing so much freely with the rest of the world. I had a collection of about 200 Moon books 15-20 years ago and still have a few of NASA's Special Publication series with photos from Mercury, Gemini, Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter and Apollo and explanatory text from the USGS geologists.🌓

I also have tons of space exploration philatelic material and ephemera, but I think I should stick to only posting the music items.   

[relm1]

My name is etched on it and I saw it twice under construction so feels very personally connected with it.  The video and audio were just amazing and I had to go outside yesterday a make a toast to Mars which I photographed.  Unfortunately, I can't post pictures here because none of them are small enough.  Later this year will be the mighty James Webb Space Telescope which has been under construction for ever and is finally launching in October.

[MusicTurner]

My name is etched on it and I saw it twice under construction so feels very personally connected with it.  The video and audio were just amazing and I had to go outside yesterday a make a toast to Mars which I photographed.  Unfortunately, I can't post pictures here because none of them are small enough.  Later this year will be the mighty James Webb Space Telescope which has been under construction for ever and is finally launching in October.

Maybe you already know, but I found out that 1) transferring a photo from one's computer via mail to oneself, as an attached file, opening and then archiving the photo on the phone, and then 2) sending the photo back again to one's computer via  mail as an attached file, will give you the option of either a) reducing the MB, an IPhone asking if you want to, or b) reducing the MB in percentages, via the picture editing function, on a Samsung phone.
I'm sure there are programs doing the same, but that's a layman's simple solution Can't be done effectfully with large data MB due to the limited allowance here on GMG though.

[Szykneij]

Maybe you already know, but I found out that 1) transferring a photo from one's computer via mail to oneself, as an attached file, opening and then archiving the photo on the phone, and then 2) sending the photo back again to one's computer via  mail as an attached file, will give you the option of either a) reducing the MB, an IPhone asking if you want to, or b) reducing the MB in percentages, via the picture editing function, on a Samsung phone.
I'm sure there are programs doing the same, but that's a layman's simple solution Can't be done effectfully with large data MB due to the limited allowance here on GMG though.

I've found that inserting the image into Microsoft Word and then saving that image as a picture also works.

[steve ridgway]

Later this year will be the mighty James Webb Space Telescope which has been under construction for ever and is finally launching in October.

Hopefully this will find out more about the earliest galaxies to form. I believe their light has now been stretched to the point of needing an infrared telescope to see it.

[DavidW]

Maybe you already know, but I found out that 1) transferring a photo from one's computer via mail to oneself, as an attached file, opening and then archiving the photo on the phone, and then 2) sending the photo back again to one's computer via  mail as an attached file, will give you the option of either a) reducing the MB, an IPhone asking if you want to, or b) reducing the MB in percentages, via the picture editing function, on a Samsung phone.
I'm sure there are programs doing the same, but that's a layman's simple solution Can't be done effectfully with large data MB due to the limited allowance here on GMG though.

You can also just reduce the resolution in paint and save it.  That is a one step solution.

[Rinaldo]

Hopefully this will find out more about the earliest galaxies to form. I believe their light has now been stretched to the point of needing an infrared telescope to see it.

Correct. I'm super anxious about JWT and can't wait to see it positioned and unfolded properly. What a project!

My name is etched on it and I saw it twice under construction so feels very personally connected with it.  The video and audio were just amazing and I had to go outside yesterday a make a toast to Mars which I photographed.  Unfortunately, I can't post pictures here because none of them are small enough.

Très cool! You can use an online tool like PicResize or Pixlr X.

[Rinaldo]

Speaking of cool, I was reminded of this old visualisation of the Huygens probe descending on Saturn's moon Titan. Each instrument onboard has been assigned a different tone and the result is a wonderful musical marriage of data & sound.

https://www.youtube.com/v/C1FdioG_9xo

[relm1]

This is also cool (Hubble Deep Field represented sonically)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Ci_YwfH04

[Rinaldo]

Lovely! In a way it reminds me of a record I've often used to calm my brain before sleeping:

https://www.youtube.com/v/Vjz9m1TkQ_A

Note that NASA had nothing to do with these recordings. The original version of these were produced by a chiropractor, Jeffrey Thompson, who was interested in marketing "therapeutic audio" through his company Brain/Mind Research. He obtained recordings that were publicly available from the Voyager PWS (plasma wave) researchers, and some of these were likely mixed into his products. However, the final results sound essentially nothing like the original natural signals. Of course there is nothing wrong with using these public domain data in creative works, but it was more than a little misleading to suggest that they represented the unmodified Voyager plasma wave recordings.

A complete set of the natural Voyager data converted to audio files is available on the web from the PWS research team at The University of Iowa. The unmodified Voyager audio occurs in 48-second segments that are quite a challenge to sift through to find interesting bits. The natural audio tends to be far less interesting, less soothing, and less marketable than these products.

[BasilValentine]

I've been anxiously awaiting the Webb telescope because I heard it will be able to provide spectroscopic data on the atmospheres of a number of "nearby" exoplanets with an eye to the possible concomitant signatures of life processes.

[vandermolen]

What brilliant images! Thanks for posting. Certainly much clearer than Apollo 11 landing on the Moon back in 1969 which I stayed up to see as a 14 year old:

[MusicTurner]

You can also just reduce the resolution in paint and save it.  That is a one step solution.

Good, I'll be having a look too.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Sweet! 

I heard a very interesting story (interview) with one of the engineers who helped to design Perseverance.  One of the things that I found fascinating was her description of how the 11 minute delay in receiving the signal effected her and also the mission in general.  I'm trying to find a copy of the story.  I'll post a link when I find it.  Quite enjoyable listening. 

[steve ridgway]

I've just been listening to the Sounds of Perseverance Driving (short version). Stockhausen and Xenakis would have loved it.

[Rinaldo]

I've just been listening to the Sounds of Perseverance Driving (short version). Stockhausen and Xenakis would have loved it.

Lovely squeaking! It's fascinating how these little snippets, both audio & video, slowly transform our perception of such a distant, mysterious world. Not it's becoming a real, solid place that one can almost 'touch'.