NASA'S Mars Rovers Pass the 50,000-Picture Mark

[wdlove]

A view of the sundial-like calibration target on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, with a bit of martian terrain in the background, is the 50,000th image from the twin rovers that have been exploring Mars since January.
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The images stock a treasury of scientific information on scales from microscopic detail to features on the horizon scores of kilometers or miles away, and even include glimpses of Mars' moons, Earth and the Sun. They also provide an always-current understanding of the surrounding terrain for use by the team of rover wranglers planning each day's activities on Mars.
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There are now more than twice as many images from the two rovers as from NASA's three previous Mars surface missions combined: Viking Lander 1, Viking Lander 2 and Mars Pathfinder. "The cameras on Spirit and Opportunity have been reliable, sharp eyes for our adventure of exploring some amazing places on Mars," said Dr. Justin Maki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., an imaging scientist on the rover team. "The pictures continue to be stunning. One big difference from earlier Mars surface missions is that the rovers continue to show us new places and new sights."
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All raw images that reach Earth from the rovers are posted online at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all . Captioned pictures, including the 50,000th image and panoramas assembled from many individual raw images, are posted at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/ .
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Both rovers have successfully completed their three-month primary missions and their first mission extensions. They began second extensions of their missions on Oct. 1.

http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/?msource=releases

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

They have past expectations,way to go!

 

[chanoc]

Too Cool!

I just love the marvels of astrophysics! Way to go NASA! Support science not supperstition.

 

[wdlove]

The Mars Rover program is definitely a bright spot for NASA. They successfully overcame many obstacles to triumph.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Ha, maybe they passed all expectation on purpose

Its a great job for all the members of the Mars Rover Team - it would be great if all the projects worked half as well....

D

 

[emw]

This is truly a bright spot in NASA's history, and the Mars team deserves a pat on the back for making this work.

 

[mymemory]

LOL, just dirt

 

[MacSA]

It looks like the Mars Rover team at JPL use Macs :

Taken from the 90 Sols in 90 seconds video in this press release for April 8th 2004. Current picture count stands at 53,022

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040408a.html

 

[wdlove]

It looks like the Mars Rover team at JPL use Macs :

I watched a PBS special about the preparation of this mission. It showed several of the research scientists using a PowerBook.

 

[emw]

LOL, just dirt

Yes, but it is "dirt" from another planet 55,000,000 km away. So the photos, really, are just an indication of the "life span" of these devices as the continue to gather data on the planet.

 

[mymemory]

Yes, but it is "dirt" from another planet 55,000,000 km away. So the photos, really, are just an indication of the "life span" of these devices as the continue to gather data on the planet.

Oh yeah... "lets take a sample from this dirt to compared with this other dirt from that other place".

The good thing is that the robots are really working fine, after so many sacrifices finally two teams did it right. That mean that tripulated expeditions are not that neccessary so soon, robots are behaving well.