One of the coolest things about our Mars expedition is how NASA eagerly encourages anyone to play with its images, videos and data however they like. Indeed, scientists at the agency say they learn a lot from what outsiders do with their work product.
In this phenomenal video independent producer Bard Canning spent four weeks painstakingly reprocessing real NASA imagery showing the rover’s near-perfect descent and its first views of the Martian surface.
Again, this video is based on real images captured by the orbiter and the rover.
Canning used a video processing technique known as motion-flow interpolation, which involves creating new frames to fit in between existing frames, increasing the overall frame rate from the original, which was just 4-frames-per-second, and making the video appear more fluid at 30 frames-per-second.
“I manually added thousands of motion-tracking and adjustment points,” Canning wrote of his process on Reddit. “I had to go the laborious manual route because the original frame-rate was too low causing the footage to jerk around too quickly for automated motion tracking to handle it.”
Thanks again to NASA and its partners around the globe for getting the job done.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. — Carl Sagan
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93 Responses to Eyes on Mars
Now on The Trail
Thanks, Craig!
Nice to start the day on some nice, neutral ‘ground’.
Love the quote too.
… and also lovin’ this: “Tho next week is our 25th anniversary, David decided on a Spring wedding, probably April.”
Congratulations again….. April, 2013 will be a happy month here at TM!
It is why I love my neighborhood
Jack, I agree with CBob:
“And this is why we all love you whskyjack.
Your comments in this neighborhood, have made us all better.”
A Measure of Change
Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will
MQW mentioned this list the other day, and that’s what prompted me to look it up (sorry if my timing seems inappropriate this morning). He or someone else may have already linked it, but if so I didn’t see it.
MQW, (if I understood you correctly) you said you saw a picture of those on that list, and that one looked like a ‘very young’ teenage girl (which is verified in the first paragraph). I don’t think I’d like to see the actual pictures though.
It’s a very long article (judging by the numbers at the bottom, that look like it goes on for 8 pages), but I don’t have the stomach to go past page one.
… apparently that was one of the fifty percent or so counter-terrorism meetings he attended. It’s reassuring to know ‘he read’ all the ones he missed though.
“President Obama, overseeing the regular Tuesday counterterrorism meeting of two dozen security officials in the White House Situation Room, took a moment to study the faces. It was Jan. 19, 2010, the end of a first year in office punctuated by terrorist plots and culminating in a brush with catastrophe over Detroit on Christmas Day, a reminder that a successful attack could derail his presidency. Yet he faced adversaries without uniforms, often indistinguishable from the civilians around them.”
Tiptoe… long time no see… good to see you again. I feel the same way. Earlier this week, Rick and I went to our capital city. We drove by the Warren Rudman courthouse. It made me feel kinda sad. I may have had some policy disagreements with him… but I knew he always voted honestly with what he thought was best for this country and my state. I voted for him. But his Republican party no longer exists. It’s gone too far batshitcrazy for me.
CBob… thanks for the Carl Sagan quotes…. LOVE Carl Sagan and miss him mucho.
Sturg… thanks for reminding me that I want to reread some of Vonnegut’s stuff. I’m currently reading the latest by Tana French, Broken Harbor. Because it’s a library book and the waiting list to read it is a mile long, I had to stop in the middle of Mike Lofgren’s book. I will finish Lofgren. Then I have about a dozen books I want to read immediately. I will fit Vonnegut in there somewhere…
too many goddamn books!… it’s delicious…
It wasn’t me, I was never there and I ain’t going back.
--Bongo Seville
I’m reading God Bless You Mr. Rosewater again…lotsa fun.
“motion-flow interpolation”?
I love it when scientists talk dirty.
Excellent discussion this morning on “Up With Chris” about the relationship between poverty and educational achievement and the money that is being made off poverty that doesn’t help alleviate poverty.
Hi Tip Toe -- Missed you, missed the map, and really, really missed “The List”. All sorts of new miscreants have joined “The List” since you last appeared.
CBOb -- Love the Sagan quotes. The new show Revolution is about what happens in a society when technology disappears. It may go the soap opera route, but I’m hoping they will keep the elements of modern people disconnected from their “toys”.
Interesting question for the trail: What is everyone reading right now. I know a lot of us do four or five books new or rereads at a time depending on mood, but what is your main one to finish at present. I’m halfway through Maimonides by Sherwin Nuland. I’ll do one of my lists if anyone else wants to contribute.
Sunday Sublime.
Much cooler out this morning, dare I say it feels like Fall. Blessed relief! The music was to mark the season, the sand art is just a beautiful bonus.I’m not sure but it may be motion-flow interpolation.
Have a great Sunday and Enjoy!
jamie, andrew mccall smith’s “the double safari comfort club” followed by caro’s “the passage of power”
bethy, i agree; but then i’m not sure what his norm is, that is, if he has one.
perhaps the change in walk or stance has to do with extra body protection (secret service issued underwear) he had to don since officially becoming the rominee.
precious remotswe of smith’s “1st ladies detective” series would fit right in with us here on the trail.
Sunday Sub-Boogie:
Patd
I didn’t know there was another #1 Detective Agency . Definitely, have to pick up that one.
There is a Facebook page for those who would like to bring back Precious Ramotswe to television.
Sturg,
Boogie indeed! Nice vid.
My official thumb up plus a bunch more.
Dare I ask which republicans are littering the Sunday shows, defending Mitt’s foreign policy expertise?
Jamie,
No books as of late, however I thought that Matt Taibbi’s Article in Rolling Stone, on Romney and Bain
and Michael Lewis’s reporting on Obama in Vanity Fair, were both worth the time to read.
welcome to mr. jack’s neighborhood
jace, are you implying those shows are litter boxes? and an obvious inference follows of what’s dropped therein?
This is interesting. What are the Trailmix neighborhoods? Because ours is one of the suburbs near Fort Lewis, we are very middle class and racially mixed. The teens in the street playing with the portable basketball hoops and the littler ones on their bicycles look like a miniature UN. Everybody waves to everyone going by either walking or in cars. It has a very watchful, “who goes there?” quality.
Patd,
Hmm,
now that you mention it….. ;
ahhhh…. neighborhoods…
I do confess that mine is mostly monotoned… all white… mostly from Finnish or Canadian background. And because I live in the woods… lots of room in between houses. There is plenty of variation in the critter department though.
The one thing I do envy of those that live in the burbs is a neighborhood such as Jack’s.
“A new Western New England Polling Institute poll in Massachusetts finds Elizabeth Warren (D) pulling away from Sen. Scott Brown (R) in the U.S. Senate race and now leads 50% to 44%, among likely voters.” From The Political Wire.
I hope that this is actually the case, and I hope she can maintain this kind of momentum.
My sense is that Wall Street will buy the State of Massachusetts before they will allow Warren to be seated in the Senate. Hope I’m wrong.
craig, that martian sand looks familiar. keep thinking a dune worm will pop out and devour curiosity. see clip below at 2:49
Ken Cuccinelli is Doing for Virginia What Romney-Ryan Want to Do for America
by Taylor Marsh
Ours is a large number of retirees and quite a few young folks with families. Cheryl and I fall somewhere in between. My neighbor Ed is the neighborhood watch.
He knows who comes and goes, who belongs and who doesn’t.
We don’t know everybody by name, but well enough to say hello and chat at the mail boxes or when we are walking the dogs. The operative word is quiet.
Challenged on Medicare, G.O.P. Loses Ground
By JACKIE CALMES
Question. Why are we in such a rush to place humans on Mars when we have not yet begun to exploit our magnificent landing on our moon? Surely we should take technological advantage of the extremely low oxygen, low gravity environment of the moon for something.
Flatus… I don’t think we’re in a rush to put humans on Mars. I think what we are… is intensely interested in finding out if there is any type of life on other planets. If we can find hard core evidence of water… either ancient or present.. on Mars… then we know there is the possibility of life… either ancient or present there. IMO, we humans have a NEED to be not alone.
.
flatus, ron paul has a suggestion
Flatus, NASA wanted to continue manned expeditions to the Moon but could not get the funding. If they had the Pentagon’s budget we’d have a Trail Mix fish camp there by now.
And worth repeating: this entire Curiousity project, including 8 years of development and 2 years on planet, cost less than two weeks of the Afghan war
Craig and David…anniversary tomorrow!
Any wedding plans? In my many daydreams, I have found you eloped and embarked on a honeymoon across the US. Visiting your blog pals along the way….hubby and I sure would like to offer you a place to stay and visit NM. The space museum in Alamogordo would be a great attraction and our local space historian, Michael Shinabery, would be great to meet with. We have lots to do here and I wish you could find a corporate sponsor for an internet reality show to detail the honeymoon-- it would be a first!
Elizabeth Warren jumps ahead 6 pts
Renee, Yes, we DO have an incredible need not to be alone. I hope to hell that the life they find matches expectations and isn’t an undesired color.
Great Blonde, can we go see Roswell? Always wanted to go there and find aliens.
Thanks for remembering our anniversary. Wedding plans are for the Spring. We’re going to this restaurant tonight to check it out as possible local. A federal judge in DC has offered to officiate, that’ll be cool.
Yes,Craig, Roswell! AND Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, Holloman AF, Spaceport, T or C, Chloride (ghost town where Edison visited with his new x-ray machine), Gila wilderness, cat walk, Mesilla, etc. Awesome green chile, too. Vineyards, etc. We are ready for you!!!
A spring wedding in DC. Sigh…how wonderful.
Question: Which bride’s father is picking up the tab?
aaahhhh… a spring wedding amid the cherry blossoms… how lovely. Craig… IMO, nothing says celebration like a fine Italian restaurant. Bon Appetit!
The best I can come up with for the Honeymoon is Mount Rainier, Pike Place Market, Museum of Glass, and a ferry ride to British Columbia for a little “I Can See Canada from my ocean” ambience.
http://tinyurl.com/9k38d6a
I am drinking from this mug this morning…picked it up from the 50th anniversary party in 1997 in Roswell.
Jamie…David and Craig can have a honeymoon in every state they travel to!!
Toots and Alice were brand new immigrants when Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the Moon’s surface. They were 8-yo at the time having been adopted less than 2-years earlier.
Despite knowing little English, Toots absolutely understood the significance and ramifications and the bravery involved in the three astronauts’ mission.
Dr Paul suggests if a “colonization” was worthwhile, it would/should have been funded by industry. Tell me, which one?
When we talked about it after Col Armstrong’s death, she was almost as animated as she was back in 1969. She shares my dismay that nothing was done beyond the mission itself.
Plus, would be nice to see Craig and David West of the Mississippi.
Craig, I do question the computations on the costs of the Curiosity Project when compared to the cost of the war in Afghanistan. They didn’t seem correct when originally posted and time doesn’t make them seem better.
Mark Twain
”Henry never stole sugar. He took it openly from the bowl. His mother knew he wouldn’t take sugar when she wasn’t looking, but she had her doubts about me. Not exactly doubts, either. She knew very well I would. One day when she was not present, Henry took sugar from her prized and precious old-English sugar-bowl, which was an heirloom in the family--and he managed to break the bowl. It was the first time I had the chance to tell on him, but he was not disturbed. When my mother came in and saw the bowl lying on the floor in fragments, she was speechless for a minute. I allowed the silence to work; I judged it would increase the effect. I was waiting for her to ask ‘Who did that?’ — so that I could fetch out my news. But it was an error of calculation. When she got through with her silence she didn’t ask anything about it — she merely gave me a crack on my skull with her thimble that I felt all the way down to my heels. Then I broke out with my injured innocence, expecting her to do something remorseful and pathetic. I told her I was not the one--it was Henry. But there was no upheaval, she said, without emotion, ‘It’s all right. It isn’t any matter. You deserve it for something you’ve done that I didn’t know about; and if you haven’t done it, why then you deserve it for something that you are going to do, that I shan’t hear about.” -- Autobiography, Vol. 1.
mark twain a-tellin’ my story….
Flatus, Afghan war tab over $6 billion a month. Curiosity project $2.5 billion
Dexter
That story reminds me of an example of when and how do children learn empathy. When she was almost three my daughter accidentally broke a prized possession, my “tattle tale crystal candy dish” that rang every time someone tried to lift the lid to get at the candy. I was in my 20s at the time and It had been in the family for at least 50 years. I just sank to the floor holding the pieces in my hands quietly weeping as my baby girl who had probably been quaking in fear of punishment just hugged and patted me with, “no cry mommy”. She will be 48 this month and still goes through life trying to make everyone feel better.
“Dr Paul suggests if a “colonization” was worthwhile, it would/should have been funded by industry. Tell me, which one?”- Flatus@ 11:57am.
Welcome to the Kellogg’s Pop Tart Moon !
Ahead of us, in the Pop Tart Nordstroms Giftshop, you can buy tickets to tonight’s musical extravaganza at the Metamucil Arena, starring Tony Bennett. He’s sure to sing Fly Me To The Moon. Please, no cigarette lighters -- oxygen is expensive up here.
If live performance is not your thing, You can lie back in the comfort of your Trump Up Luxury Moon Suite rt, and watch Tony on your Samsung Mega Screen.
Your slavish personal servants, in their charming Pop Tart Moon Elf rt costumes, are provided by MaoCo, Inc. and are all very well compensated. Please, do not give them tips or offer to help them in any way. They like their way of life. And, although a trip back with you downside may sometimes seem tempting to one of them, please remember that they still have relatives back in their home villages.
We hope that you will enjoy your visit to the Pop Tart Moon.
XR
Remember the intro to the Moon station in 2001 A Space Odyssey? Most of the corporations you see are no longer in existence, but that idea of sponsorship was definitely there.
craig, you sure he’s not setting you up for an elaborate joke?
you know that bated breath moment when david is expected to answer the “do you take” question, he looks at you, smiles sweetly and then says “april fool!”
does that quoted afghan war tab also include the monthly health costs for wounded warriors?
Jamie,
Yes, I remember the rocket-propelled TWA bus approaching the space station, and the late Leonard Rossiter (aka Reggie Perrin) in the lounge.
Was it a HoJo space station ? I haven’t seen a Ho Jo since senile bush became the last person on earth to discover scanners.
“april fool!” -- Pat @ 1:42pm
I’m sure glad I didn’t write that. I’m in enough trouble with the owner already.
Said I was reading “Maimonides” and just came across and interesting passage. The year is 1172
… News report from 840 years ago.
I was married on April 1st, 2007. And I have met many couples since who were married on the same day. A subtle joke about marriage? Most claim an easy day to remember. I was a menopausal bride and had a blast planning a family wedding…it was the last time we would all be together. We lost my Mom and brother-in-law months afterward to cancer.
Yes, Pat, that’s how they come up with $1-million a head/year.
I think they are overstating the Afghan war costs because that’s the sensible thing for the Administration to do. Conversely, I think, if anything, the Mars costs are understated.
happy new year, jamie
David should know better than to play April jokes on his prospective attorney spouse.
bw, good idea. makes for fun anniversaries.
feb 29th is better tho’ memory-wise because you only have to remember it every 4 years.
My parents were married on the 4th of July … Probably a omen there somewhere.
Listening to a very pleasurable baroque piece for a double-bass duet. On Swiss 1.fm. Maybe they’ve snuck a cello in there as well.
Present reading material
The Grave Diggers of France NF by Pertinax
Think Fast, Mr. Moto* F by John P. Marquand
The Sailing Companion NF by Arthur Somers
With Sweetie : Time Lord NF by Clark Blaise
* Comments about Waikiki in the Good Old Days that appeared here on the Trail, led me to reread Think Fast, Mr. Moto. I am sure I vacationed in the same Cabana that the protagonist lived in, only 20 years later. As I remember, Marquand didn’t mention cockroaches -- at least not of the six-legged variety.
If it’s baroque don’t fix it…..
XR
That is about as impressive and eclectic reading list as anyone could put together … Time Lord immediately reminded me of Longitude and in looking down I find “Longitude” among the “people who bought Time Lord also bought .. ” but reading that while dabbling in Marquand?
XR, if you need a contractor to take care of that guy who’s messing with Sweetie, just let me know.
Reading…
The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted by Mike Lofgren (My Kindle tells me I’m 58% through it…spending too much time online these days, gets in the way of my reading).
Recently finished…
Rather Outspoken by Dan Rather
Twilight of the Elites by Chris Hayes
Waiting in the wings (well, on the nightstand)…
Gap Creek by Robert Morgan
Grace Unexpected by Gale Martin (light reading recommended by Jamie’s friend, The Distracted Wanderer…written by a friend of hers)
…and too many more to mention, but which will be read in whatever order my distractable mind leads me….
HW I’m going to patent two versions of a new speedy reader. People whose available time is impinged by television can speed their reading by choosing to either omit the consonants in their chosen volume or to omit the vowels. Those sitting on the launch pad may omit both consonants and vowels. In all cases, though, page numbers are immutable.
Why have we all omitted our online neighborhood?
Very easily described in many aspects, and defies description in others.
Wonderful diversity in population. Shares in the good times as well as the bad. Has some great traditions, bickers from time to time, but smiles far more than it frowns. Usually on the lookout for one another. Great folks to chat with over the fence.
Would do a mean, mean carry in dinner. Most likely to meet each other in the library. Prefer fishing to work. Just your typical American neighborhood.
My neighborhood is a 40 apartment complex, top story with peaked roofs, built in a horseshoe facing a major street. Parking is in the back. There are maybe ten lamplights lining a nice green lawn where kids play. They also ride bikes on the sidewalk. The folks are really mixed with good contingent of fijians, blacks, hispanic,
whites, and I don’t know who else. We are a very private group -- I wouldn’t recognize some of my neighbors if I saw them in the mall.
Right now the kids range in age from infant to 10 or so. They are
really sweet and happy kids. Most of us know the kids and kinda play with them. We have at least 2 retired vets, one with 2 tours in Iraq, and the other much older. I don’t know that I could stand an all-white place. I moved here in August 1989! I have enjoyed some good times here, and survived some horrific episodes here. It’s home, but I’d rather be in France right now.
I read one book at a time, but I’ve had to cave a time or two when
desparate. I’ve confessed before that I read only mysteries, some are light escape and some are pretty heavy, believe it or not. I really prefer historical mysteries. There are some non-fiction books I’ve had my eye on lately. Citizens of London -- Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest Finest Hour, and Troublesome
Young Men. Basically, serious non-fiction requires someone to talk over things with…I have no ability to stop thinking about the subject and would die from lack of sleep.
Flatus, I’m jealous re the double-bass duet, especially if a cello joins in.
Interesting article on the Australian Muslim riots One would almost suspect that there is some global coordination of the crazies going on and the decent people are getting hurt and killed as usual.
Looking for an Anti-Semite in Maureen Dowd’s Haystack
by Taylor Marsh
HW
I try not to think of the stack on the nightstand, not to mention the obsessions that lie within the Amazon Wish list.
Bethy, when I hear these largest of fiddles playing music from hundreds of years ago I am simply enthralled. And bless the musicians who have developed the skill to enthrall me!
I generally like Maureen Dowd, and think the idea that her column was anti-semitic is ludicrous. However, I have problems with this
paragraph. I know I might be reading it wrong so can anybody tell me where the direct line can be drawn to?
“”You can draw a direct line from the hyperpower manifesto of the Project for the New American Century, which the neocons, abetted by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, used to prod an insecure and uninformed president into invading Iraq — a wildly misguided attempt to intimidate Arabs through the shock of overwhelming force. How’s that going for us?”"
I think I might see it now, but the dash messes it up.
Oh, Flatus, absolutely. I like to watch the faces of members of an orchestra and find how they differ from each other, and wonder what drove them to put in all that time and effort and spend money for intruments. It’s not always a lucrative career path. They’re heros
to me.
Bethy,
The dash is symbolic, it means that we should have thrown Cheney and the rest of those cockroaches in jail.
Probably not the explanation you were looking for, but I can live with it.
Jace, Thanks and I basically agree with you. I just think she lost control of her sentence, or even typing. I assume she wanted to say
“”draw a line from…to a misguided attempt…” I’m prett literal when I read and kept waiting for the end of her opening line. Not really important. Now I’m gonna stop hogging this place and sign off.
Bethy,
Not too worry. I opened a bottle of cheap red a while ago. Everything I post from here on, should be taken with a grain of grape.
You are hogging nothing.
Have a good evening.
Dowd an anti-Semite ? Preposterous.
However, it wasn’t Dowd’s best effort. I find distinguishing neocons from dict cheney and don rumdumsfeld to be grossly misleading. rumdumb and the dict are the epitome of neoconmunism. They held the highest offices neocons ever grabbed. It’s like distinguishing the fascisti from mussolini and chiano.
Marsh’s defense wasn’t her best effort either. Iraq Fiasco II was more to over awe Americans than Arabs, after all there would be an election in only 19 months. But the prime goal of the invasion was to panic the oil markets, getting the price of fuel up, and making a killing -- if you’ll pardon my too apt metaphor. .
Jace,
You love cheap reds? I presume you don’t mean the ones that drag their knuckles and send ‘birther’ emails to normal people.
G’night.
Once again Obama straight up lied
Hillary too
They got played into getting us into Libya ,
Now , they’re trying to cover up their incompetence by blaming an obscure movie
Too close to the election to admit the truth
We handed Libya over to al-Qaida and radical Muslims
[Jagger - Richards] “I was born in a cross-fire hurricane
And I howled at my ma in the driving rain,
But it’s all right now, in fact, it’s a gas!
But it’s all right. Im jumpin jack flash,
Its a gas! gas! gas!
I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag,
I was schooled with a strap right across my back,
But it’s all right now, in fact, it’s a gas!
But it’s all right, Im jumpin jack flash,
Its a gas! gas! gas!
I was drowned, I was washed up and left for dead.
I fell down to my feet and I saw they bled.
I frowned at the crumbs of a crust of bread.”
(other than all this I have lived a pretty good life!)
What a mess , we are war with the Taliban in Afghanistan
We have a drone war going on in Pakistan ,
At the same time bribing the Pakistan government with foreign aid
We a drone war in Yemen , at same time paying off the government
We have drone wars in the Sudan
Giving money to egypt and Libya , Israel
Selling billions and billions of military equipment to Saudi Arabia
Supporting Israel with direct military aid
About to go to war with Iran
Or the Israelis will ,getting the russians involved
Supporting al-qaida in Syria , again the Russians are involved In supporting Assad
There’s more
What a effin mess , oh but Obama and Hillary are doing such a fantastic job
If Romney accidentally wins ,
The bush era neo cons will take over his administration
And bomb everybody
We are broke and getting broker
What a effin mess
” I have enjoyed some good times here, and survived some horrific episodes here. It’s home, but I’d rather be in France”
I know exactly what you mean, Bethy.
The big difference is you have the opportunity… I don’t.
I can’t wait to hear about your first visit there to visit your family. I think you’ll eventually decide to stay in France (or maybe I just think that, because it’s what I’d probably do). What a lucky person you are to have that possibility in your future.
MQW,
Thank you so much for those videos.
I hate to admit it, but they don’t surprise me at all. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to hear real life, researched news.
The TRUTH will always come back to bite us on the hind side.