Mars in 4K
July 23, 2020 8:36 AM Subscribe
High resolution footage from Mars
Bonus link: It can't be said often enough: Mars Is An Awful Place To Live (link to link to pdf)
Bonus link: It can't be said often enough: Mars Is An Awful Place To Live (link to link to pdf)
Hasn't NASA been putting out high-resolution stitched panoramas from these rovers since forever?
posted by BungaDunga at 9:06 AM on July 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by BungaDunga at 9:06 AM on July 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
This is a nice slideshow of them, to be sure, but the main reason nobody bothered to render previous slideshows of them is because nobody had 4K monitors and rendering out a 4K video only makes sense in a world where everyone gets their content via YouTube. You can just poke around these images yourself, at whatever native resolution of your device.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:16 AM on July 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by BungaDunga at 9:16 AM on July 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
"Never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things going so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you're in love, my how they fly
Blue days
All of them gone
Nothing but blue skies"
-Ella Fitzgerald.
posted by clavdivs at 9:17 AM on July 23, 2020
Never saw things going so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you're in love, my how they fly
Blue days
All of them gone
Nothing but blue skies"
-Ella Fitzgerald.
posted by clavdivs at 9:17 AM on July 23, 2020
At least it might be virus free.
I’ve never understood how all the materials required to build the infrastructure necessary to support continuous human habitation could be brought to Mars. And the infrastructure to get off the surface of Mars and return to earth. Years ago I saw an article whose author argued that extraterrestrials zooming around the universe at subrelatavistic speeds or higher over really long distances and times would have to come from a place with a huge and very wealthy economy to afford building and operating such expeditions. We can’t afford to move down the street to Mars.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:27 AM on July 23, 2020
I’ve never understood how all the materials required to build the infrastructure necessary to support continuous human habitation could be brought to Mars. And the infrastructure to get off the surface of Mars and return to earth. Years ago I saw an article whose author argued that extraterrestrials zooming around the universe at subrelatavistic speeds or higher over really long distances and times would have to come from a place with a huge and very wealthy economy to afford building and operating such expeditions. We can’t afford to move down the street to Mars.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:27 AM on July 23, 2020
I’ve never understood how all the materials required to build the infrastructure necessary to support continuous human habitation could be brought to Mars.
[elcor] Helpfully: Rockets. [/elcor]
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:42 AM on July 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
[elcor] Helpfully: Rockets. [/elcor]
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:42 AM on July 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
Gotta say, I wasn't expecting to see the ruins of the Statue of Liberty in that last shot
posted by Beardman at 9:44 AM on July 23, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by Beardman at 9:44 AM on July 23, 2020 [7 favorites]
> I’ve never understood how all the materials required to build the infrastructure necessary to support continuous human habitation could be brought to Mars. And the infrastructure to get off the surface of Mars and return to earth.
Very few things would be making the return journey. Diamonds and rare metals like platinum I would imagine. As for human habitation, I think the goal is to live off the land where possible, hence the ongoing interest in water and oxygen. As the multiple biodome projects have shown, the self-sustaining ecologies needed are also rather hard to build here on earth, without any of those logistical problems.
> Years ago I saw an article whose author argued that extraterrestrials zooming around the universe at subrelatavistic speeds or higher over really long distances and times would have to come from a place with a huge and very wealthy economy to afford building and operating such expeditions. We can’t afford to move down the street to Mars.
Well, it helps to keep in mind how cheap it is to move about once you've escaped gravity wells. Not a whole lot of wind resistance in space. If your goal was simply mineral deposits, the asterioid belt is a cheaper, simpler target you could potentially bring back to earth unmanned.
posted by pwnguin at 10:02 AM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
Very few things would be making the return journey. Diamonds and rare metals like platinum I would imagine. As for human habitation, I think the goal is to live off the land where possible, hence the ongoing interest in water and oxygen. As the multiple biodome projects have shown, the self-sustaining ecologies needed are also rather hard to build here on earth, without any of those logistical problems.
> Years ago I saw an article whose author argued that extraterrestrials zooming around the universe at subrelatavistic speeds or higher over really long distances and times would have to come from a place with a huge and very wealthy economy to afford building and operating such expeditions. We can’t afford to move down the street to Mars.
Well, it helps to keep in mind how cheap it is to move about once you've escaped gravity wells. Not a whole lot of wind resistance in space. If your goal was simply mineral deposits, the asterioid belt is a cheaper, simpler target you could potentially bring back to earth unmanned.
posted by pwnguin at 10:02 AM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
Very few things would be making the return journey.
My guess is that for a lot of people this will be a one way trip to Mars. Most who go won't be planning on coming back, at least at first.
posted by jmauro at 10:40 AM on July 23, 2020
My guess is that for a lot of people this will be a one way trip to Mars. Most who go won't be planning on coming back, at least at first.
posted by jmauro at 10:40 AM on July 23, 2020
Slow beats the time-worn heart of Mars beneath this icy sky;
Thin air whispers voicelessly that all who live must die—
posted by The Tensor at 10:58 AM on July 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
Thin air whispers voicelessly that all who live must die—
posted by The Tensor at 10:58 AM on July 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
Just to be clear -- because this has generated confusion in my social media feeds -- this isn't "footage from Mars". It's footage generated on Earth from still photos taken on Mars. Somebody just gave some photos the Ken Burns treatment, then uploaded the result with a misleading description.
NASA does not have currently the bandwidth to download 4K footage from Mars on anything like a realistic timeline. And there's no real reason to shoot it in the first place -- it's not like there's much motion to capture.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 12:02 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
NASA does not have currently the bandwidth to download 4K footage from Mars on anything like a realistic timeline. And there's no real reason to shoot it in the first place -- it's not like there's much motion to capture.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 12:02 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
I guess this will have to suffice as the new Dune trailer for now.
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:08 PM on July 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:08 PM on July 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
Those people who faked the moon landing have really been busy.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:17 PM on July 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:17 PM on July 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
The detail in these mosaics is incredible. Mars is another world in every sense.
NASA does not have currently the bandwidth to download 4K footage from Mars on anything like a realistic timeline. And there's no real reason to shoot it in the first place -- it's not like there's much motion to capture.
I liked that this was discussed in the video. One thing that came to mind was an old project from a technology company whose name I forget, where they use an in-house algorithm to stitch together photos taken from many positions and angles, which they use to reconstruct a three-dimensional virtual environment that someone can travel through.
It would be a way to create a kind of telepresence on Mars, without actually capturing any video. Though perhaps the numbers of photographs required would present their own bandwidth challenge.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:42 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
NASA does not have currently the bandwidth to download 4K footage from Mars on anything like a realistic timeline. And there's no real reason to shoot it in the first place -- it's not like there's much motion to capture.
I liked that this was discussed in the video. One thing that came to mind was an old project from a technology company whose name I forget, where they use an in-house algorithm to stitch together photos taken from many positions and angles, which they use to reconstruct a three-dimensional virtual environment that someone can travel through.
It would be a way to create a kind of telepresence on Mars, without actually capturing any video. Though perhaps the numbers of photographs required would present their own bandwidth challenge.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:42 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
Did anyone see a bee gun anywhere?
posted by Splunge at 1:08 PM on July 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Splunge at 1:08 PM on July 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
At least it might be virus free.
NASA certainly hopes not.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:26 PM on July 23, 2020
NASA certainly hopes not.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:26 PM on July 23, 2020
My guess is that for a lot of people this will be a one way trip to Mars. Most who go won't be planning on coming back, at least at first.
Of course, Elon is the one beating the drum for this. As he has said, “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:25 PM on July 23, 2020
Of course, Elon is the one beating the drum for this. As he has said, “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:25 PM on July 23, 2020
I can't look at these images or read discussion about settling Mars without thinking about my own experience of Death Valley, and the Death Valley Germans.
My friend and I went to a more tame area than the germans in the story did, but not far from it as the crow flies, and not well traveled. We did a single night out and back from our base camp by our truck, and in that entire time we did not see a single soul and had no cell phone reception.
During that time we were out and about day hiking. We were unable to find our objective, and I wanted to press on. My friend reminded me, though, that were I to fall, we could count on no aid, and it would turn into a survival situation.
I'm not an experienced outdoorsman by any stretch of the imagination, but considering that put into stark terms the harsh truth of the serene desert landscape.
That's what I see in these pictures. It takes a more visionary mind than I have to look at them and see anything other than desolation and death from a human habitation standpoint.
posted by billjings at 2:48 PM on July 23, 2020 [5 favorites]
My friend and I went to a more tame area than the germans in the story did, but not far from it as the crow flies, and not well traveled. We did a single night out and back from our base camp by our truck, and in that entire time we did not see a single soul and had no cell phone reception.
During that time we were out and about day hiking. We were unable to find our objective, and I wanted to press on. My friend reminded me, though, that were I to fall, we could count on no aid, and it would turn into a survival situation.
I'm not an experienced outdoorsman by any stretch of the imagination, but considering that put into stark terms the harsh truth of the serene desert landscape.
That's what I see in these pictures. It takes a more visionary mind than I have to look at them and see anything other than desolation and death from a human habitation standpoint.
posted by billjings at 2:48 PM on July 23, 2020 [5 favorites]
If there's life on Mars — any life — I think we should we should honor that life and do everything we can to preserve it and allow it to thrive, not least because it could well turn out to be the ultimate ancestor of all life on Earth.
But if there isn't, I think the most important step toward colonization would be bombarding Mars with icy comets and small icy asteroids, which would be almost impossible to do effectively if there were colonists already living there.
posted by jamjam at 3:17 PM on July 23, 2020
But if there isn't, I think the most important step toward colonization would be bombarding Mars with icy comets and small icy asteroids, which would be almost impossible to do effectively if there were colonists already living there.
posted by jamjam at 3:17 PM on July 23, 2020
As soon as I saw the tracks, I was legit looking around for plastic waste to pick up with my grabber, because wherever in the wild there are tracks, plastic waste is not far away.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:53 PM on July 23, 2020
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:53 PM on July 23, 2020
As a Geologist, and a lover of landscapes...
These are all so cool. Especially when they mention how the rovers all die from sandstorms. The weird false coloring also has been freaking me out a bit. Start hypothesizing why the rocks are blue...
posted by Windopaene at 3:54 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
These are all so cool. Especially when they mention how the rovers all die from sandstorms. The weird false coloring also has been freaking me out a bit. Start hypothesizing why the rocks are blue...
posted by Windopaene at 3:54 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
Blue rocks, yeah, since the atmosphere seems yellowish, I am probably wrong. In one picture though, above the crater there seemed to be a lake with sequentially floating balls, theoretically on the line that separates the shallow water from the deep. I love these images. Those ghostly sand waves in the bottom of the crater, and on the walls here and there. Watching The Expanse has enlivened the comments section of this thread for me. The Belters will hook you up for your Martian expedition.
posted by Oyéah at 4:03 PM on July 23, 2020
posted by Oyéah at 4:03 PM on July 23, 2020
Blue rocks, yeah, since the atmosphere seems yellowish, I am probably wrong.
Like Windopaene mentions, some of the images use false color, where slight differences in color are stretched so you can tell the less brown/red rocks from the more brown/red rocks.
posted by zamboni at 4:29 PM on July 23, 2020
Like Windopaene mentions, some of the images use false color, where slight differences in color are stretched so you can tell the less brown/red rocks from the more brown/red rocks.
posted by zamboni at 4:29 PM on July 23, 2020
It takes a more visionary mind than I have to look at them and see anything other than desolation and death from a human habitation standpoint.
This sentence must only be spoken in a Werner Herzog accent.
posted by Liquidwolf at 4:42 PM on July 23, 2020 [11 favorites]
This sentence must only be spoken in a Werner Herzog accent.
posted by Liquidwolf at 4:42 PM on July 23, 2020 [11 favorites]
Since Mars has a much, much thinner atmosphere, and our atmosphere scatters and presumably reflects a lot of blue, I thought the balance of the spectral color composition of Martian sunlight would be shifted toward the blue, but this site claims otherwise, and that the respective spectra have the same shape and differ only in height.
I'm not 100% sure the pictures on the site are consistent with that statement though, because the central peak on the Mars spectrum looks to me like it has been lowered proportionately more than either edge, but that could be a illusion, I guess.
posted by jamjam at 4:44 PM on July 23, 2020
I'm not 100% sure the pictures on the site are consistent with that statement though, because the central peak on the Mars spectrum looks to me like it has been lowered proportionately more than either edge, but that could be a illusion, I guess.
posted by jamjam at 4:44 PM on July 23, 2020
...it's not like there's much motion to capture.
I saw this line in the video too and it strikes me as one of those types of assumptions that is later regretted.
posted by vacapinta at 1:00 AM on July 24, 2020
I saw this line in the video too and it strikes me as one of those types of assumptions that is later regretted.
posted by vacapinta at 1:00 AM on July 24, 2020
Mars would make a good prison planet, like how the State of California locates its prisons in the most remote, god-awful, uneconomic locations it can find.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:36 AM on July 24, 2020
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:36 AM on July 24, 2020
jamjam, if you're interested in how color appears on Mars, you should look in to the calibration targets like MarsDial.
posted by zamboni at 6:13 AM on July 24, 2020
posted by zamboni at 6:13 AM on July 24, 2020
The (hypothesised) rockslides and (observed) dust devils would make interesting videos I think. Tricky to get, though, since they're so unpredictable. For more of this kind of data-driven planetary visualisation, Seán Doran's YouTube channel is really worth checking out.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 7:08 AM on July 24, 2020
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 7:08 AM on July 24, 2020
…dust devils would make interesting videos I think. Tricky to get, though, since they're so unpredictable.
Dust devil movies are like fishing. You pick a direction and cast the line.....and hope that hours, sometimes days later when it executes on the rover something shows up. Got lucky hereposted by zamboni at 9:32 AM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
I wonder if the blue spectrum, since it is a tighter wave, would show better on Mars? The blue rocks are fascinating, they look shiny.
posted by Oyéah at 3:08 PM on July 24, 2020
posted by Oyéah at 3:08 PM on July 24, 2020
The blue rocks are fascinating, they look shiny
This is how it starts.
posted by flabdablet at 8:57 PM on July 24, 2020
This is how it starts.
posted by flabdablet at 8:57 PM on July 24, 2020
Well, it ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids.
I strongly suspect the health care system is better there.
posted by brundlefly at 1:01 AM on July 25, 2020 [1 favorite]
I strongly suspect the health care system is better there.
posted by brundlefly at 1:01 AM on July 25, 2020 [1 favorite]
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Well, it ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:54 AM on July 23, 2020 [26 favorites]