You may be familiar with the story,
reported here, about the southern California watch maker who supplied wrist watches for Mars scientists to get to
work on time. You may not have seen these time applications that make the time story equally as compelling for the rest of us. What is interesting from a graphics standpoint is the different qualities expressed with these versions, as a
table of exact times for specific locations (this site has a lot of great detail about the mission), or as an approximate time with shadows projected on the
Mars map (for Mac OS X).
Any other Mars time graphics that you know about?
posted by xtian
on Jan 23, 2004 -
5 comments
24:39 NASA is running their Spirit Martian explorer program on Martian solar time. With the project day running 39 minutes longer than a real day, engineers found they faced difficulties adjusting to this virtual timezone. Their solution was nearly as old as timekeeping itself.
posted by Ogre Lawless
on Jan 9, 2004 -
13 comments
To the moon, Alice! (And then, on to Mars) Time will tell whether this declaration will lead to an actual rebirth of NASA and realignment of goals for the agency. But I for one am absolutely thrilled that Bush is planning to give NASA a long-overdue new mission and goal. Avoiding the obvious pro/con debate of doing this (or the cost), I think it's absolutely vital to the national psyche for the United States to have a long-range goal that it can focus positive energy upon. This could be the first real "Challenge to the Union" that I think should become an annual event to replace the State of the Union.
posted by tgrundke
on Jan 9, 2004 -
84 comments
We landed on Mars. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has captured its first color image of Mars. It is the highest resolution picture ever taken of another planet. Fascinating.
posted by mad
on Jan 7, 2004 -
27 comments
The most accurate navigation in history. "We had to know everything from how the iron molten lava in the center of the Earth was churning to how plate tectonic movements were affecting the wobble of the Earth to how the plasma in the atmosphere delayed the radio signals to and from the Deep Space Network stations". ..even the seemingly insignificant solar radiation pressure and thermal radiation forces acting on the spacecraft to a level equal to less than a billionth of the acceleration of gravity one feels on the Earth needed to be taken into account. This mission set a new standard for navigation accuracy for all future interplanetary missions.
posted by stbalbach
on Jan 4, 2004 -
2 comments
Mars, take II - Still no word from
Beagle 2 (discussed
here), unfortunately, as Mars maintains its tough reputation. However, the first of two rovers much larger than 1997's very successful Pathfinder is expected to hit the Martian surface with a giant bounce tonight at 8:35 p.m. PST. Check out the
realistic simulation videos of how it will land and get to work, then watch
Nasa TV (RealVideo) for live coverage.
posted by planetkyoto
on Jan 3, 2004 -
51 comments
Mars ho! In about 24 hours, the
Beagle 2 lander will descend to the surface of Mars, courtesy of the European Space Agency. After a few mighty bounces, encased in a giant rubber ball, the lander will open up and allow its instrument payload to start sampling the surface.
This is the first in a
trifecta of landers destined for Mars during the next month.
NASA's landers,
Spirit and Opportunity, land on January 3rd and January 24th.
posted by warhol
on Dec 23, 2003 -
25 comments
Lego Astrobots Blog From Mars Rovers - The Planetary Society has teamed with NASA to "man" it's two Mars Exploration Rover spacecraft with Lego "Astrobots." The bots, Biff Starling and Sandy Moondust, are
blogging their adventure "to allow kids to vicariously experience life in space, from launch, through the six-month space cruise, to landing and roving on the Martian surface."
posted by tpl1212
on Jun 13, 2003 -
4 comments
Constance Adams, Space Architect She designed the International Space Station's
TransHab module (a prototype for manned Mars missions), and says cool things about what the role of architecture is: "Architecture involves forming harmony around the human system, balancing culture, biology, planetary knowledge and technology in counterpoint to the unknowable."
(via boingboing)
posted by vraxoin
on Jan 24, 2003 -
3 comments
Santa found living on the South Pole....of Mars!?! Mysterious tracks that look like 250-mile long ski or sled trails have been found near the South Pole of Mars.
Researchers at the University of Colorado have found the broad, sweeping lines cutting through a section of the southern ice caps of the frigid planet, but haven't a clue what caused them. via the excellent laputan logic
posted by Ufez Jones
on Dec 17, 2002 -
7 comments
Art goes to Mars. This may be the very first art that our species sends into space, unless you count the little naked folks on the Voyager plaque, or broadcast television. In a somewhat bold move, they've chosen shock artist putter-of-sharks-in-formaldehyde
Damien Hirst. Is it me, or would the chosen painting be much dorkier if this were NASA rather than the European Space Agency? Like a duck or something.
posted by condour75
on Nov 30, 2002 -
12 comments
The Mars Gravity Biosatellite Project is an unmatched international effort that pools top-notch technical talent from MIT, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. The mission is nothing short of groundbreaking. The plan is to build a spacecraft capable of housing a small crew of mice, including pregnant females, which will simulate the gravity of Mars to determine its effects on mammalian development.
posted by David Dark
on Sep 18, 2002 -
9 comments
The New Frontier- Preparing the law for settling on Mars. "Like the abandoned launch fields [at Cape Canveral], the Outer Space Treaty [of 1967] needs to have its valuable parts salvaged, and the dangerous ones demolished."
posted by Ty Webb
on Jun 4, 2002 -
12 comments
Oh cripes. Not again. Remember like a year or two ago when M&M/Mars switched the lime flavored Skittle with green apple? And it totally upset that harmonic flavor balance you get when you shove a handful of Skittles into your gaping maw? This time, it's much much worse. The lemon Skittle has been replaced with one of nine white Mystery Flavors! Guess all nine and get a "FREE CHEW THE CLUE
TM Screensaver."
Jesus Christ. Quit screwing with my candy, people.
Warning: site saturated with #FFFF00. May cause blindness.
posted by andnbsp
on Apr 15, 2002 -
43 comments
Good news for fans of the late, great Replacements Paul Westerberg has signed a new deal, will return in April with a 2 cd set and is also considering a tour.Hey Paul, Tommy Stinson is wasting his time with Axl Rose, so call him up.I'm guessing Chris Mars and Slim Dunlap would be available for gigs too.
Billboard articles have a pop-up, sorry 'bout that.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet
on Jan 14, 2002 -
13 comments
With the
Mars Odyssey about to finalize gravitational orbit tomorrow, you too can observe the surface of Mars via a
simulcast with
PBS or through the
NASA website on October 30th. NASA is still searching for irrefutable
evidence that Mars could have supported an
ecosystem or more importantly life. Interesting.
posted by Benway
on Oct 23, 2001 -
3 comments
Is Mars the answer? The healing process will take years. The moon landing was a peaceful demonstation of America's technological leadership in the 20th century. Could a Mars landing do the same for the 21st?
posted by Loudmax
on Sep 26, 2001 -
30 comments
Did the Viking landers find life on Mars 25 years ago? Some scientists think so. I have too much faith in planetary scientists and
the newly minted field of exobiology, to believe this is a just a ploy to
rekindle waning public interest in space exploration. I think this is
genuine 20/20 hindsight coupled with better scientific understandings of life
existing in the extreme hinterlands of possibility. . .
posted by crasspastor
on Jul 30, 2001 -
29 comments
No women on Mars. "Women are likely to be barred from any Russian mission to Mars because they would increase the "probability of conflicts" among the crew, says a Russian space official." We've come a long way, haven't we?
posted by judith
on Jun 6, 2001 -
23 comments
The Martian Internet
This is a cover-eyes-and-post post: NASA has made it a goal to improve telecommunications in deep space. This is good since I would hate to get up to my lunar base, and not be able to check e-mail. For a while, it will probably be Arpanet-level bandwidth. Just when we master this whole optical fatpipe stuff, they redraw the amount of territory an ideal network should cover.
posted by rschram
on Apr 17, 2001 -
1 comment
It's official. There was life on Mars!!! "I am convinced that this is supporting evidence for the presence of ancient life on Mars,'' said Kathie Thomas-Keprta, an astrobiologist at the space center and the first author of a study appearing Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
posted by zeoslap
on Feb 26, 2001 -
12 comments
New career option! Be slave worker on the Martian surface! This is pretty cool, actually. It's an internet based pilot study run by NASA to identify and classify all of the craters on the surface of Mars. This is a big job. All you need is a IE 5 or Netscape 6 web browser. Since its inception on November 17, web users combined have contributed 111,938 crater-markings and 26,877 crater-classification.
posted by lagado
on Jan 9, 2001 -
2 comments
Looking Out Across Dao, Niger, and Harmakhis Valles on Mars. Okay, boring subject. The Martian Global Surveyor has been in orbit around Mars for three years. Sometimes you just have to take some time to look at what's been coming back and admire the raw beauty of the landscape.
This is a mid-autumn view of three major valley systems east of the Hellas plains. From left to right, the first major valley, Dao Vallis, runs diagonally from the upper left to just past the lower center of the image. Niger Vallis joins Dao Vallis just above the center of the frame. Harmakhis Vallis extends diagonally across the right half of the picture, toward the lower right. These valleys are believed by some to have been formed--at least in part--by large outbursts of liquid water some time far back in the martian past. The picture is a composite of red and blue wide angle images obtained by MOC on September 13, 2000.
posted by lagado
on Oct 25, 2000 -
10 comments
