Don't trust Scientists to take good photos...

[FlyingPete]

For those who are unaware, or have been living under a rock a landing probe (Huygens) successfully landed on one of Saturn’s moons - Titan.

Now as usual this probe had cameras on board as well as other scientific instruments, now I have been hanging out for some awesome pics from this little probe - boy was I disappointed!

http://www.lowden.orcon.net.nz/TitanMosaic.jpg

http://www.lowden.orcon.net.nz/TitanColour.jpg

Now I know it is now at least seven years since the launch, so it was available technology at the time, also low light, and low bandwidth with a limited time window to transmit, I guess I just hoped for more!

[pcasciola]

Must have been made by Nikon.....

[CyberDyneSystems]

Yes,, the pics are disappointing,..

As I understand it,. Nasa asked Nikon to provide the camera electronics like CCD etc,. and they contracted with "Quantaray" for the lens...


:lol: :lol:

[CyberDyneSystems]

DAMN! Phill you beat me to the punchline!!!!!! :mrgreen:

[Pekka]

They just do not provide hires photos as they usually do. This photo

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/Picture2.jpg

was taken from 8km height with resolution "1 pixel = 20 meters" which means it must be extremely large and detailed file.

Now the question all scifi fans like me love to hear answered: why only 10KB photos of a scene that is first detailed landspace from Titan? :rolleyes:

[Penguin_101_1]

I have also heard that they use the proven tech. On the Mars rovers they used the Pentium III insted of IV because it had been tested much more. That could be 7-9 year old tech there.

[pcasciola]

DAMN! Phill you beat me to the punchline!!!!!! :mrgreen: I have a shortcut key on my keyboard that types out random negative Nikon comments. :D

[pcasciola]

The current two rovers we have on Mars are sending back some pretty impressive stuff, though:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040215a/x_pubeng_approved_021004_whiteboat_RGB_pancam_br.j pg

Full size: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040215a/x_pubeng_approved_021004_whiteboat_RGB_pancam_br.j pg

And who says scientists can't be artistic!!!!! Take a look at this one:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040304a/_xpe_pubeng_approved_030304_sandia_art-A060R1_br.jpg

Full size: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040304a/_xpe_pubeng_approved_030304_sandia_art-A060R1.jpg

[FlyingPete]

The current two rovers we have on Mars are sending back some pretty impressive stuff, though:



Yeah, that is more like it!

[Moppie]

Now the question all scifi fans like me love to hear answered: why only 10KB photos of a scene that is first detailed landspace from Titan? :rolleyes:

Low Res hides the cities :eek:

[CyberDyneSystems]

Low Res hides the cities :eek:


..the invasion fleet?

[Moppie]

..the invasion fleet?

I hear they had to move that to Venus from Mars.


Prehaps they found a Monolith?

[Bodryn]

Those pinhole digicams just can't compete... :(

[Wilfred]

I have also heard that they use the proven tech. On the Mars rovers they used the Pentium III insted of IV because it had been tested much more. That could be 7-9 year old tech there.
The Mars rovers are using RAD6000 computers, radiation hardened based on the IBM PowerPC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD6000

Apparently you don't want blue screens in outer space ;)

[Andy_T]

Maybe they didn't know what kind of haze filters would work best in a methane athmosphere?

Best regards,
Andy

[neil_r]

They were taken in a Hangar in Kent anyway :D


N

[F1_Fan]

Now the question all scifi fans like me love to hear answered: why only 10KB photos of a scene that is first detailed landspace from Titan? :rolleyes:
The Mars rovers are solar powered and shooting in lots of available light. The Saturn lander, by comparison, is operating in almost no light and on battery power.

Due to the cold temperatures and planetary alignment options (basically the lander had a single opportunity to broadcast back to the probe which then turned and relayed the data to Earth) there was one chance for a broadcast before the probe's batteries died and the thing became an icecube.

Be happy with what we got... a lot of low-res images are scientifically more important than a handful of high-res images. All those high-res probe images (Voyager, etc) are generated from nuclear-powered craft that have better ability to capture/store/process images. I think NASA has a policy against leaving nuclear-powered devices on planets hence the battery power problem.

[neil_r]

I think NASA has a policy against leaving nuclear-powered devices on planets hence the battery power problem.It was European :lol: :lol:

NASA Salutes Successful Huygens Probe
01.15.05 - NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe offered congratulations to the European Space Agency (ESA) on the successful touchdown of its Huygens probe on Saturn's moon Titan. The above image shows a full 360-degree view around Huygens


N

[Jesper]

They say they've got 350 images from the Huygens probe, but so far we've only seen a few on the NASA website... why don't they show more images?

btw, Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Titan in 1655, was a Dutch scientist, who also invented the microscope... ;)

[FlyingPete]

They say they've got 350 images from the Huygens probe, but so far we've only seen a few on the NASA website... why don't they show more images?


All the raw images are available here, alot of them are the same, esspecially that surface shot:
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/titanraw/index.htm

I had had a look at all 350 images, they appear to have been transmitted in strips of three, one image from each camera, hence why the views from ground the other two decent cameras have just captured noise.

Nothing really to add to what we have seen already unfortunately.

[F1_Fan]

It was European :lol: :lol:

NASA Salutes Successful Huygens Probe
01.15.05 - NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe offered congratulations to the European Space Agency (ESA) on the successful touchdown of its Huygens probe on Saturn's moon Titan. The above image shows a full 360-degree view around Huygens


N
Ah yes, thanks.

BTW reason for battery usage is quoted below:

Why couldn't the Huygens probe have had a radioisotope power source such as those used on the Mars Viking landers? Three hours of battery life sounds as if it will only be able to communicate with Cassini on just one single pass of Titan.




The power system for the Huygens probe was selected on the basis of the mission requirements and to fit the probe's mass, cost, telecommunications and other constraints. A battery was determined to be the right power source to meet the mission requirements. The scientific objectives of the Huygens probe mission are to characterize the chemical reactions occurring in the Titan atmosphere, find the source of abundant methane in the atmosphere, determine if there are seas or lakes on the surface, and determine if more complex organic compounds and pre-biotic molecules exist on Titan. The probe was designed and instruments selected to answer these high-priority questions. The battery is designed to provide 3 hours of electrical power - more than adequate to meet the probe's electrical needs in the 2 and 1/2 hour descent. In that time, the probe should return a great wealth of observations and measurements that answer the science objectives and leave us with new questions that could be addressed by future missions. For longer-lived landed or orbital missions to Titan in the future, radioisotope power sources, and/or a space nuclear reactor under study by NASA's Prometheus program, would be among the power sources considered.

[FlyingPete]

OK, as I was a little disapointed with the results of ESA and NASA, I had a look at what I had in the garage, threw some bits together and taped my only digicam to it and sent it on its way last night, here is what I got back this morning:

http://lowden.orcon.net.nz/RealTitan.jpg

Not bad for a first attempt considering the hardware I had :lol:

[Pekka]

I got also one from upwards:
http://studio-on-the.net/pekka/ps_textures_for_vst/download/planetary_sunset.html

[Moppie]

LOL! I hope you didnt send the 20D Peter!


Im still waiting to hear if they found a monolith or not.

[FlyingPete]

LOL! I hope you didnt send the 20D Peter!


Im still waiting to hear if they found a monolith or not.

Nah, my cr*p old Sony Cybershot!

[Moppie]

Sounds like acceptable atonement for your mistake, and suitable use for a sony. :D