Comments on: 90 Sols in 90 Seconds

90 Sols in 90 Seconds

fatbobsmith — Tue, 18 May 2004 12:59:07 -0800

With all this talk of wars in distant countries, it's easy to forget that there's exciting things going on just 300 million km from your back porch. NASA has provided 90 second videos of the first 90 sols of the Spirit [5MB .mov] and Opportunity rovers [5MB .mov].

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 18 May 2004 13:06:07 -0800

Meanwhile, Cassini-Huygens is just 43 days away from Saturn.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Tue, 18 May 2004 13:07:48 -0800

"sols?"

By: smackfu

smackfu — Tue, 18 May 2004 13:08:21 -0800

If they were really exciting, we wouldn't have forgotten them.

By: fatbobsmith

fatbobsmith — Tue, 18 May 2004 13:12:33 -0800

sol = one planetary rotation

By: malphigian

malphigian — Tue, 18 May 2004 13:15:26 -0800

A day on Mars is called a sol, short for solar day, and lasts 24 hours 39 minutes 35.244 seconds..

By: badstone

badstone — Tue, 18 May 2004 13:17:43 -0800

that's just another bad film school project, you can't fool me.

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Tue, 18 May 2004 13:35:12 -0800

Thanks for the links fatbob - that was fun. The animated shadows and motion add a new sense of reality to it. A couple nights ago, I spotted Mars in the sky, with my 3-year old daughter, and said "remember those robots we saw on the computer - that's where they are right now, rolling around". She said "what are the robots saying?" I told her "they are saying 'Hello down there - this is what Mars is like'.". That was a fun and gratifying conversation.

By: hoskala

hoskala — Tue, 18 May 2004 14:03:15 -0800

Avesome. Are they still operational? Wov.

By: steef

steef — Tue, 18 May 2004 14:39:35 -0800

[Sweet.] From someone who still visits the image galleries daily, I can't tell you how much fun it was to see the rovers' travels summed up in little flipbooks, adding my own engine-revving and tire-squealing sound effects. Grrrrrrrn, squeeeeee! Vrrrrrrrrrrrrm, eeeeeek! Pocketa-pocketa-pocketa, meep meep! [Thanks!]

By: stuartmm

stuartmm — Tue, 18 May 2004 14:56:12 -0800

The Opportunity video is very interesting. Especially using the wheel to "dig" into the surface to allow the arm to get samples. I also did not realise they took Opportunity right back to its lander before taking another tour.

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Tue, 18 May 2004 15:14:05 -0800

I don't even know how to put into words how impressive I find this. That we have RC robots tooling around on a different planet and can watch and eat popcorn while they do their work is truly astonishing.