NationStates Jolt Archive


Cool pic of Earth from afar...

The Plutonian Empire
05-06-2005, 07:47
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/press_release_5_31_05.html

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/images/Earth-Moon_labels_lg.jpg

NASA’s Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft – less than three months from an Earth flyby that will slingshot it toward the inner solar system – successfully tested its main camera by snapping distant approach shots of Earth and the Moon.

MESSENGER took a set of six pictures on May 11 with the narrow-angle camera in its Mercury Dual Imaging System, or MDIS. Earth was about 18.4 million miles (29.6 million kilometers) from MESSENGER at the time, but the main processed image clearly shows bands of clouds between North and South America on Earth’s sunlit side. The image is cropped from the full MDIS image size of 1024x1024 pixels, and the contrast has been adjusted slightly to bring out the Moon in the same frame. The Moon was 248,898 miles (400,563 kilometers) from Earth.

Dr. S. Edward Hawkins III, lead engineer for MDIS at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., said finding the Moon in the pictures was an unexpected bonus. “As we stretched the image we saw this little object to the side, which turned out to be the Moon,” he said. “That was exciting.”

One of seven instruments in MESSENGER’s science payload, the multispectral MDIS has wide- and narrow-angle imagers, both based on charge-coupled devices (CCDs) found in common digital cameras. MDIS has taken nearly 400 test shots since MESSENGER launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station last Aug. 3, but all were of star fields, dark space or a calibration target on MESSENGER's lower deck. “The team is elated,” says Dr. Louise M. Prockter, MDIS instrument lead scientist at APL. “These were our first ‘real’ images, and they’re only going to get better as MESSENGER moves closer to Earth.”

The photo session was just part of the preparations for the Aug. 2 Earth flyby, the first major adjustment to MESSENGER’s flight path toward Mercury. While MDIS took its pictures, the Mercury Laser Altimeter team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland checked its instrument’s alignment by firing a high-powered laser at it from a ground-based Goddard telescope. The mission operations and science teams are also finalizing plans to calibrate several instruments – including the Magnetometer, Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer, and Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer – during approach and departure observations of Earth and the Moon. Closest approach will bring MESSENGER 1,458 miles (2,347 kilometers) over northern Asia; observers with small telescopes in Japan, Eurasia and Africa will have the best chance to spot the spacecraft.

During a 4.9-billion mile (7.9-billion kilometer) journey that includes 15 trips around the Sun, MESSENGER will fly past Earth once, Venus twice and Mercury three times before easing into orbit around its target planet. The upcoming Earth flyby and the Venus flybys, in October 2006 and June 2007, will use the pull of the planets' gravity to guide MESSENGER toward Mercury's orbit. The Mercury flybys in January 2008, October 2008 and September 2009 help MESSENGER match the planet's speed and location for an orbit insertion maneuver in March 2011. The flybys also allow the spacecraft to gather data critical to planning a yearlong orbit phase.

MESSENGER, short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, is the seventh mission in NASA's Discovery Program of lower cost, scientifically focused exploration projects. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, leads the mission as principal investigator. APL manages the mission for NASA, built MESSENGER and operates the spacecraft.
Cool, huh? :)
Jeruselem
05-06-2005, 07:51
Black and white - no colour?
Vastiva
05-06-2005, 07:53
Black and white - no colour?

There is no color in space, didn't you know? :p
Jeruselem
05-06-2005, 07:55
There is no color in space, didn't you know? :p

So, why do some of those man on the moon photos have colour?
Seangolia
05-06-2005, 08:15
So, why do some of those man on the moon photos have colour?

It's all a conspiracy. We never actually landed on the moon.

Seriously though, I hope you're just going with the joke he made. There is "color" in space. All "color" is is different light waves reflecting off of surfaces. An apple is red because it absorbs all light accept for red light, which it reflects. Think of it that way. Thus, color exists in space.

Now, it's in Black and White because B&W images tend to be sharper and show more detail than color image(Note: Hubble does not use the normal spectrum for it's images, thus the spectacular display of colors).
Undelia
05-06-2005, 08:46
Yeah , they are cool pictures. Too bad they cost millions of dollars to get. I swear, the amount of money that the feds waste on NASA is just infuriating. :headbang:

I highly doubt that the average American is thinking, "I sure hope this money is used for space exploration," as they are filing their taxes.
Chellis
05-06-2005, 09:08
And that stars? They disapporated!
Melkor Unchained
05-06-2005, 09:12
Yeah , they are cool pictures. Too bad they cost millions of dollars to get. I swear, the amount of money that the feds waste on NASA is just infuriating. :headbang:

I highly doubt that the average American is thinking, "I sure hope this money is used for space exploration," as they are filing their taxes.
Complaining about the Government wasting tax dollars on space exploration is like complaining about Nazism as being unfair to businesses. There's a lot more worse stuff they're doing with that money.
Potaria
05-06-2005, 09:15
Complaining about the Government wasting tax dollars on space exploration is like complaining about Nazism as being unfair to businesses. There's a lot more worse stuff they're doing with that money.

*cheers, but at the same time, wonders exactly what Melkor means by "much worse stuff"*
Rotovia-
05-06-2005, 09:20
Is it just me or do these pictures really suck?
Vastiva
05-06-2005, 10:04
Is it just me or do these pictures really suck?

So now you want a quality camera as well as a deep space probe and a mission to mercury and satellite tv?

Some people are never satisfied.

Seriously, this is the picture, that's what is there. The resolution is insufficient to pick out all the colors of Earth - and the moon is a dirty gray anyway. There aren't any stars because there aren't any stars in that particular direction bright enough not to be "erased" by sunlight and the lack of resolution.

A picture from outer space of our planet and the best you can do is "do these pictures really suck?"??

Sheesh!
Phylum Chordata
05-06-2005, 10:05
Personally, I'd be willing to shell out a few dollars to find out more about space, for example, if there is life on Mars, etc. But the cheapest way to do that is with robots. I'm not fond of the idea of paying to shoot other people into space. I mean, being shot into space sounds like a lot of fun. If someone wants to be shot into space they can pay for it themselves.

But if you want to take up a collection to shoot me into space, please feel free.
Rotovia-
05-06-2005, 13:15
So now you want a quality camera as well as a deep space probe and a mission to mercury and satellite tv?

Some people are never satisfied.

Seriously, this is the picture, that's what is there. The resolution is insufficient to pick out all the colors of Earth - and the moon is a dirty gray anyway. There aren't any stars because there aren't any stars in that particular direction bright enough not to be "erased" by sunlight and the lack of resolution.

A picture from outer space of our planet and the best you can do is "do these pictures really suck?"??

Sheesh!
Something million dollars the least I can ask for is for a decent picture. Hell how about one where our planet doesn't look like we should consider changing galaxies...?
Robot ninja pirates
05-06-2005, 13:39
I wonder how long it will take before people somehow turn this into a political argument.

I give it 12 hours.
Wisjersey
05-06-2005, 13:43
Yeah , they are cool pictures. Too bad they cost millions of dollars to get. I swear, the amount of money that the feds waste on NASA is just infuriating. :headbang:

I highly doubt that the average American is thinking, "I sure hope this money is used for space exploration," as they are filing their taxes.

Ha! The money they spent on space exploration doesn't flow into war effort! :D ;)
New Foxxinnia
05-06-2005, 14:30
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA00452.jpg
Pale Blue Dot is much better.
Wisjersey
05-06-2005, 15:22
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA00452.jpg
Pale Blue Dot is much better.

Random side note here: Did anybody read Carl Sagan's book of the same title? I liked it very much. :)
B0zzy
05-06-2005, 15:29
The more we learn about our environment the better. Space is part of it. Without space exploration we would not know or have many of the facts about the earth we currently know. Hell, we wouldn't even be able to track hurricanes with the same accuracy.

Goddam right it is a good investment. A helll of a lot better than the sum total of all porkbarrel expenses. Way better than anything the NEA does, and head and shoulders above any 'wealth redistribution' schemes ever adopted by the overnment.
Andaluciae
05-06-2005, 15:41
I've always had a scale issue with the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Now that's resolved!
The Plutonian Empire
05-06-2005, 19:43
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA00452.jpg
Pale Blue Dot is much better.
way cool :) :cool:
ProMonkians
05-06-2005, 19:47
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA00452.jpg
Pale Blue Dot is much better.

Conclusive proof that the Great Wall Of China is NOT visable from space :D