2021 Mars missions (Perseverance, Ingenuity helicopter, and more)

[roguemoon]

Great to see all three missions arrive safely, especially the Japanese and Emirates Mars Missions.

Noticed on the video footage the 'blue-ish' edge of the Martian atmosphere.

Looking forward to May when, hopefully, the Japanese rover lands, be great to see another countries camera's down on the planet.

[Bill Ryan]

Many may have seen this, but this short video is a very cool animation of Perseverance's landing yesterday, the most complex Mars aerial maneuver ever attempted.*

This all worked. Real video of the landing (from cameras on the craft) should be released soon once it's compiled, which takes a while as there's a lot of data to transmit.
* in the public domain, anyway. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzmd7RouGrM

[uzn]

Here are the first pictures of Perseverance:

https://gatorchatter.com/attachments/03bf5383-5e19-416e-9081-4c0e8d7356f4-png.30281/

https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/SJM-L-MARS-0218.jpg

Black and White and a resolution that woud make an 80ies mobile phone proud. I know its the HazCams but not very impressive.

[uzn]

The first color pics from Perseverance are here:

https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/25612_PIA24430-panorama-1200.jpg
The resolution is still not very high but at least a blue sky ;)

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the descent:
https://www.uahirise.org/releases/perseverance/perseverance-descent-large.jpg

One frame from the decent video (the video is not released)
https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/25609_1-PIA24428-1200.jpg
not real colors (compare ground color in first pic with this one)

[happyuk]

Is there footage of the parachute being deployed besides the photo nasa has shown?
I would be very interested to see how they overcome this difficult task, given the rarified Martian atmosphere, something like 1% of earth I have read.

[Bill Ryan]

Is there footage of the parachute being deployed besides the photo nasa has shown?
I would be very interested to see how they overcome this difficult task, given the rarified Martian atmosphere, something like 1% of earth I have read.Yes, I believe it'll be published soon. (Videos contain a lot of data which takes far more time to be interpreted, compiled, relayed and received than still images.)

It was a huge parachute, 70.5 feet (21.5 meters) in diameter, deploying when the thing was traveling at about 940 mph (1,500 kph), calculated — apparently correctly! — to be plenty enough to get it to open.

[Ernie Nemeth]

What happened to the part that deployed the rover? Did that then go into orbit?

[Bill Ryan]

What happened to the part that deployed the rover? Did that then go into orbit? It just flew itself way out of the way, and then landed (or crashed) some distance away. There are quite a few good animations of the whole thing.

[roguemoon]

made me giggle when the NASA team video i saw had them quickly explaining that they 'Still had to get the colours right.'
Yeah, we know, red sky for the public.....

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Yes, colour manipulation of the Martian surface is well documented, and is demonstrated, and to my satisfaction proven, by this pic:

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/attachment.php?attachmentid=46176&d=1613831904

It's interesting that the first Perseverance image contains no such manipulation, and shows the surface of Mars as it probably is, being quite consistent with this colour correction.

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[Ti]

Yes, colour manipulation of the Martian surface is well documented, and is demonstrated, and to my satisfaction proven, by this pic:

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/attachment.php?attachmentid=46176&d=1613831904

It's interesting that the first Perseverance image contains no such manipulation, and shows the surface of Mars as it probably is, being quite consistent with this colour correction.

I am a professional photo editor and graphic designer. I have determined that it's easy to achieve the effect we see with an orange overlay. Of course, we're not taking into account that color is not as 100% determined as one may assume... in the warehouse we're seeing clear white industrial lighting and on Mars, color will be influenced by refraction of light from the surroundings.

That said. It looks Photoshopped. This effect is an EASY one to achieve.

I started playing around to see if I could extract the orange when I discovered seams in the sky. I exaggerated the coloration to make them really pop out. So, while I can't guarantee that the yellow to orange shift isn't a result of lighting, something was digitally manipulated in this image. If it were a stitching artifact, the seam would continue down into the landscape. So, I would conclude by this seam that something was edited out of the photo by someone who copied and pasted a chunk of sky and didn't blend out the edges, they only masked out the landscape. They likely forgot to do this because it's almost invisible in the image at the size you intend someone to view it at, it's only because I blew it up on my huge high res art monitor that I could see it.

What did they hide? Now that's the question. A cloud? An alien space ship? Some overseers? Maybe it is just a seam from stitching and because I don't have the full panorama I'm leaping to conclusions?

46177

Just to make a point, I have taken your other example and demonstrated how easy it is to achieve the color alteration with very basic photo editing techniques. It took me about one minute, most of which was finding a close color match. I didn't get it exact, but it's pretty close...

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So yeah, try it yourself, the color I got to was this nice 774530. Clearly they don't have a consistent technique, however... I don't know what happened to make that 'descent' look so greenish brown. Eesh. Oh well, I suppose they're scientists, not artists, I can't expect optimal photo editing skills. NASA, if you're reading this, I'm available for hire! I can edit out your UFOs and clouds and retint your landscapes like a pro! It's not just because I want to see the masters... :cash:

So why Photoshop it this severely? It's not like the planet looks comfy and habitable right now, it's pretty rocky and stark. Sure, I guess the sky's a little more blue and maybe if it looks like Earth we might be more inclined to start pattern matching than we would if it looks like an alien wasteland, but why not let us ignite our imaginations if it's just one more untouched frontier waiting for human achievement to finally touch it?

I've been fascinated by the true color of Mars ever since I discovered that there were a few strips in Google Mars if you access it the right way, where they must have forgotten to add the Photoshop overlay... as I recall the trick is to go to Google Mars not directly, but from a different planet, where you will get a different sphere overlay than the one they use from their main copy of Google Mars.

Here's an example where you see the colored strips in alongside the brighter red tinted ones. In my investigation I determined there are a couple of different satellite sources and the 'true' ones come from a specific photography company compared to the red ones, and they're always high res.

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And a couple of closeups...
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Yes, folks, this is from Google Mars. Now, they're constantly changing things, this version of the map is not the one they push, it's not as pretty, but it is online. Here's an example of one of these different satellite colorations on the version of the map in question so you can explore for yourself these glitches in the color of Mars. Here's one to get you started. There are a bunch and they're all lovely high res beauties with such stunning character it makes you wonder why they don't have the whole planet wrapped up with that loving attention to artistic detail. https://www.google.com/maps/space/mars/@-69.2321898,-15.5801142,134834m/data=!3m1!1e3

I truly don't know what's going on. I can only assume it's either photographed at night or that, what we're seeing in those closeups, is the actual surface of Mars without being retouched and the kind folks putting it together missed a few pieces in their duty.

Seeing glimpses of the true color of Mars, such as in the touchdown photo, make me feel really emotional. Seriously, I well up like any past life memory. I don't know what's up with Mars. I hope we figure it out in my lifetime. I'm really glad they're at least trying to conquer that frontier. I truly do want the best and brightest working on the problem of putting humans on other planets, and the best for this adventure. I'm glad they landed Perseverance successfully. But for me, the "best" includes a healthy dose of honesty. Why lie if it's just another rock between us and a never-ending sky of untouched adventures waiting for a human bold enough to go out and touch them?

Why orange? What does the orange-red convey through the programming we've received via the media? What does it evoke? When it comes to popular culture I immediately jump to Mad Max. Deserts, scarcity, a struggle for survival. It evokes fire, blood. A color of warning. You see red and you stop, you see red and you know the contents are toxic, caustic, hazardous.

I don't hate that pale blue sky with the lavender mountains swallowed up by a pastel candy haze like I do the idea of an oppressive red sky dominated by red rocks and mountains glaring down at me as if to say, 'danger, danger, this is a toxic land'. So. Why orange? Why is that getting the color right? Sure, I guess it's a little reddish in the night sky. But Ochre set to Hard Light red? Nah, I don't think so.

Sorry to derail the mission to talk about my pet conspiracy: Mars is Photoshopped. I am convinced of this.

I respect the mission. I'm hyped to know more about it. I hope it brings us to great places. I want to see real untouched photos.

[uzn]

Is there footage of the parachute being deployed besides the photo nasa has shown?
I would be very interested to see how they overcome this difficult task, given the rarified Martian atmosphere, something like 1% of earth I have read.

Hi happyuk, it´s not 1 percent it´s roughly one third of earths atmosphere (33 %). Even airplanes with a bigger wingspan are possible.

Nasa has a Helicopter on board the Perseverance rover.

here a rendered picture (with the funky red colors):
https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/original_images/PIA23720-illustration.original.jpg

From the JPL website:
Ensuring that Ingenuity has plenty of stored energy aboard to maintain heating and other vital functions while also maintaining optimal battery health is essential to the success of the Mars Helicopter. The one-hour power-up will boost the rotorcraft’s batteries to about 30% of its total capacity. A few days after that, they’ll be charged again to reach 35%, with future charging sessions planned weekly while the helicopter is attached to the rover. The data downlinked during tomorrow’s charge sessions will be compared to battery-charging sessions done during cruise to Mars to help the team plan future charging sessions.

Like much of the 4-pound (2-kilogram) rotorcraft, the six lithium-ion batteries are off-the-shelf. They currently receive recharges from the rover’s power supply. Once Ingenuity is deployed to Mars’ surface, the helicopter’s batteries will be charged solely by its own solar panel.

After Perseverance deploys Ingenuity to the surface, the helicopter will then have a 30-Martian-day (31-Earth-day) experimental flight test window. If Ingenuity survives its first bone-chilling Martian nights – where temperatures dip as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius) – the team will proceed with the first flight of an aircraft on another world.

[Bill Ryan]

Is there footage of the parachute being deployed besides the photo nasa has shown?
I would be very interested to see how they overcome this difficult task, given the rarified Martian atmosphere, something like 1% of earth I have read.Yes, I believe it'll be published soon. (Videos contain a lot of data which takes far more time to be interpreted, compiled, relayed and received than still images.)

It was a huge parachute, 70.5 feet (21.5 meters) in diameter, deploying when the thing was traveling at about 940 mph (1,500 kph), calculated — apparently correctly! — to be plenty enough to get it to open.Here's the whole hi-res video sequence, just published in a news conference.

:thumbsup:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czjS9h4Fpg

[uzn]

One new true picture:
https://heise.cloudimg.io/width/696/q50.png-lossy-50.webp-lossy-50.foil1/_www-heise-de_/imgs/71/3/0/6/1/4/5/9/Navcam_1-3b2d216f0f1b5da4.jpg

and lots of reddish pictures like this:
https://heise.cloudimg.io/width/1140/q75.png-lossy-75.webp-lossy-75.foil1/_www-heise-de_/imgs/71/3/0/6/1/4/5/9/Navcam_2-532a6c198f7d14b4.jpg

[uzn]

The Mars Express orbiter has kept an eye on an elongated cloud above Arsia Mons volcano for the last few years. The cloud is reoccurring, grows incredibly fast and is "made up of water ice," according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

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[ExomatrixTV]

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight
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Monday, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity team at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at 6:46 a.m. EDT (3:46 a.m. PDT).

[ExomatrixTV]

Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Makes History As First Vehicle To Fly on Another Planet:

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[ExomatrixTV]

Perseverance rover, Ingenuity helicopter, and the search for ancient life on Mars:

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