Another black and white picture from space...

[orionrider]

Here is the latest, most gorgeous picture of the Earth, as captured by a state-of-the-art multi-million dollar probe:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/e ... 00627.html

I understand that cameras designed for Science don't necessarily take nice pictures, but for the general (taxpayer) public this looks like a joke. Black and white :shock: :?: :?: :?:
Ah, and then tonight you can see the shuttle dock the ISS in the 8PM news. I bet my cell-phone takes better video! Not to mention the lander flying halfway across the solar system to snap grainy gray-and-gray landscapes of Titan... :evil:

Nowadays, most 100gr cameras take 10MP shots and HD video; it couldn't be that expensive to fit one on each probe, just to motivate the masses, post on youtube, hang the poster in the kid's room?

I hope they will learn some PR tricks when they launch the mission to the Jupiter system. I would die for a HD video of the 40,000kmh lowpass between the volcanoes of Io :mrgreen:

 

[JonClarke]

Here is the latest, most gorgeous picture of the Earth, as captured by a state-of-the-art multi-million dollar probe:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/e ... 00627.html

I understand that cameras designed for Science don't necessarily take nice pictures, but for the general (taxpayer) public this looks like a joke. Black and white :shock: :?: :?: :?:

Read the story. It's a test. Someone thought it would be interesting. You don't have to be.

Ah, and then tonight you can see the shuttle dock the ISS in the 8PM news. I bet my cell-phone takes better video!

I bet it doesn't.

Not to mention the lander flying halfway across the solar system to snap grainy gay-and-gray landscapes of Titan... :evil:

What? The first timne any oblique descent imagery had ever been obtained from a space probe. The first time we had any imagery from the surface of Titan. And there was no certainty that the atmosphere would be transpaerent enough for imagery. And you whinge because it was in B&W? You should be grateful there was imagery.

Nowadays, most 100gr cameras take 10MP shots and HD video; it couldn't be that expensive to fit one on each probe, just to motivate the masses, post on youtube, hang the poster in the kid's room?

Thos cameras are not designed to cope with the the space probe environment and don't have to transmit data acorss vast distances with less power than runs the average light bulb. And this one still has a resolution of better than 4 km at a distances of near half a million km. They don't even work the same way as the LROC Narrow Angle Camera.

I hope they will learn some PR tricks when they launch the mission to the Jupiter system. I would die for a HD video of the 40,000kmh lowpass between the volcanoes of Io :mrgreen:

I hope you will learn some basic facts about spacecraft design and the challenges of planetary imaging before then.

 

[orionrider]

O.K. Your reaction says it all. You think I'm too ignorant to appreciate the stuff? Like all those other uneducated scum? They are just good enough to pay taxes and shut up?
This is not about me. I know about bandwidth, kelvin temps and how incredibly difficult that is. I get thrilled when I see the chromatographic signature of CH4 in the Martian atmosphere. But remember that the money for those important missions comes from the public. You, me and all the other more or less educated folks out there.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/ti ... tan_10.jpg

This picture can be a breakthrough for Science, but for Joe the plumber it doesn't look like what you would expect from the 100,000,000$ camera he helped to pay.

I believe that each mission should make provisions for a 'show the flag' aspect to motivate the general public. JAXA has fully understood that. The Hayabusa coverage has been an example of excellent PR and the latest pictures of the solar sail were not only useful, but good enough to show on CNN:
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/wo ... 00618.html

Much easier to find funds for the space program if people proudly support it

 

[mithridates]

I've been impressed by JAXA recently for just the same reason - they understand the value of eye candy. I think the best example of the opposite of that was Lunar Prospector in 1998, the first mission to the Moon in what, two or three decades? We all paid attention to that mission, but it didn't produce a single image to be shown to the rest of the world. NASA has gotten better since then (Mars rovers in particular) and overall does a better job than ESA, but nobody does it like JAXA.

 

[3488]

Can I clear up something here.

The image taken of Earth was using the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) NARROW ANGLE CAMERA (NAC). The LROC NAC is a monochromatic grey scale centred on the green portion of the visible spectrum for a very special reason. The LROC NAC is designed to image the Moon at extremely high resolution from low lunar orbit.

Black & White is better than colour @ distinguishing changes in largely monochromatic regolith texture, finer detail at plotting smaller rocks within geological units, light scattering on regolith, etc. For the Moon & for Mercury this is especially true as neither body has much 'colour'.

The MRO with HiRISE is a little different as Mars is more colourful, with colour variations, with ice patches, volcanic ash, sedimentary layers, weathered formations, lava, etc, hense why HiRISE is full colour. However for some observations even with HiRISE, it is used in B & W mode for reasons stated above.

The LROC WAC (WIDE ANGLE CAMERA) has seven filters from near IR to near UV with five visible light filters, capable of producing full colour & multispectral imagery. The WAC images the Moon from Low Orbit at a much lower resolution than the NAC, ideal for mapping the lunar minerology & specific chemical makeup of geological units.

The Earth image was taken using the NAC in the Off Nadir mode (i.e not pointing straight down) as a TEST & CALIBRATION. For calibration purposes for a Lunar Orbiter, what better than to point said instrumentation towards the solar system body that we know far, far more about than any other, the Earth. :mrgreen:

They may also have taken full colour Earth images with the WAC, though that will not have not nearly so much detail.

**** MOD HAT ON*****

I have locked this thread as it serves no further purpose. I have provided a link below that describes the LRO LROC.

**** MOD HAT OFF*****

Here is a link that describes the LRO LROC.

Andrew Brown.