<![CDATA[Gizmodo: martians]]> http://cache.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gizmodo.com.png <![CDATA[Gizmodo: martians]]> http://gizmodo.com/tag/martians http://gizmodo.com/tag/martians <![CDATA[ Earth's Most Distant Web Cam Pics Went Live This Week ]]> Usually the venerable web cam is used for modest, local tasks, like taking deep-in-thought Facebook profile pics, making me-too webcasts, or undercover girl's locker room documentaries. But did you know there's also a web cam circling the Red Planet right now? Called the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC), the cam is attached to the European Space Agency's Mars Express, and was last used to visually confirm the Beagle lander’s separation from the main spacecraft. It was then put into sleep mode, and has been in that state for the past three years. Bo-ring. The ESA folks thought so too, and on a whim they gave the command to wake up back in 2007. It did, and now they want your help processing a year's worth of images.

Says the ESA:

Open invitation for image feedback:: You can assist the Mars Express team with additional processing of the raw image data files as well as interpretation: What do you see? What part of the Mars surface is being shown? Can you identify any geographical features? What regions of the atmosphere or atmospheric components do you see?

Keep in mind these images are what they're calling "tourist quality" (i.e. non-scientific), so they aren't going to be used in any major studies or experiments anytime soon. They are, however, perfect for Mars enthusiasts and weather-watchers. And who knows, maybe you'll be lucky enough to use this web cam to spot a careless Martian doing something they can't take back. Interstellar YouTube video? WIN. [ESA via Discover Magazine]

]]>
Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EDT Jack Loftus http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5041005&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ NASA Releases Dirty Photos of Spirit Rover Solar Panels ]]> Hey Pig Pen. Yeah, you, the Mars Spirit Rover with the red Martian dust all over your solar panels. We're filing a post on a bathtub later today, so why don't you take the hint and use one? What's that? You're millions of miles away and potable water may or may not be somewhere on the planet you're currently exploring? Oh, well, in that case, pray for another wind storm or something, because these filthy before and after pics mean only about 1/3 of the Sun's light is getting through to power your electronics. NASA's plea for a sensor-cleaning interstellar dust storm is after the break.


Says NASA, via its Jet Propulsion Laboratory web page:

If Mars had an on-line Web site for ads, one of them might say something like this: "Wanted: Gentle space-age dust removal system to clean solar cells without leaving grit behind. Please direct inquiries to NASA."

NASA's Spirit rover has accumulated a lot of dust during four years of exploring Mars, especially following last year's dust storms. Only about one-third of incoming sunlight is able to penetrate dust on the rover's solar panels to be converted to electricity. As a result, Spirit is experiencing the lowest energy levels to date and accumulating a backlog of data waiting to be transmitted to Earth. The only available cleaning agent would be a timely gust of Martian wind!

On a more serious note, four years on planet (and one dodged budget cut) is an incredible accomplishment. [NASA via Tom's Astronomy Blog] ]]>
Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EDT Jack Loftus http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=384488&view=rss&microfeed=true