7 ms·

> No photos will be taken on the surface, because the lander lacks a surface camera. For the love of all that's holy... ESA needs to learn a thing or two from

by aedron 10y ago

> No photos will be taken on the surface, because the lander lacks a surface camera. For the love of all that's holy... ESA needs to learn a thing or two from NASA about public relations.

flippyhead 10y ago
Yeah at least we Americans _pretended_ to have cameras when we faked the moon landing.
- corecoder 10y ago
  Thinking about that, how easier would it be to just say: alas, we cannot bring cameras because reasons...
  - grecy 10y ago
    The Americans needed footage of the moon landing to fight the propaganda war against Russia.
- kyriakos 10y ago
  Do people really believe moon landing was faked? Serious question by the way, I thought it was a conspiracy for tin foil hats and not a serious theory.
  - jandrese 10y ago
    There is a certain fringe who seriously believe it, among other things. Your average person on the street doesn't take that theory seriously though.
  - mturmon 10y ago
    Of course anyone can believe anything, but here you go: https://chemtrailsplanet.net/2015/12/19/another-nasa-hoax-mars-rovers-discovered-staged-at-devon-island-canada/ https://chemtrailsplanet.net/2015/12/19/another-nasa-hoax-ma...
- flippyhead 10y ago
  I'm pretty dismayed to re-visit this comment a few days later and realize people didn't get my sarcasm. I always forget the tinfoil _also_ blocks sarcasm.
merraksh 10y ago
ESA needs to learn a thing or two from NASA about public relations. And then choose whether or not to practise these teachings based on space/weight constraints and the type of mission (scientific, in this case). I'm sure they did think about it for a minute, but I have the feeling that the European public opinion doesn't have a "picture or it didn't happen" attitude.
- rubber_duck 10y ago
  >but I have the feeling that the European public opinion doesn't have a "picture or it didn't happen" attitude It's more that these things are funded up the EU chain, people deciding it don't even need to get elected (and EU representatives get elected on a different issues) so they probably don't give a shit what the public thinks about them spending their money.
  - arethuza 10y ago
    Most (80%) of ESA's funding comes directly from countries, not via the EU, so the people making funding decisions are very much directly elected: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_and_the_EU http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_and_the_EU NB I don't know if funding decisions are made on a project by project basis. Edit: Also for the European Commissioners are appointed by the elected governments of member states.
    - rubber_duck 10y ago
      >Also for the European Commissioners are appointed by the elected governments of member states. Who campaign and are elected on issues totally unrelated to things like this. Basically the public probably doesn't even know it's paying for this until it's reported in the news. At least stuff like this gets debated in the US. For example if I walked around in my office among 20 people (with higher education and into tech) and ask them what ESA is I doubt 5 would know what it stands for and even less that they are paying for it. Everyone knows what NASA is.
      - 10y ago
aeharding 10y ago
Although the lander does not have a camera, the rover, due to launch in 2020 as part of the ExoMars mission, does have a panoramic camera system. (It also has other imaging devices.) [1] [1] http://exploration.esa.int/mars/45103-rover-instruments/ http://exploration.esa.int/mars/45103-rover-instruments/
tonmoy 10y ago
This is just a proof of concept lander
maaaats 10y ago
The Rosetta mission (by ESA) just recently have had the best overage I've ever seen. The cute videos, lots of updates, twitter accounts etc.
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  Not to mention the science fiction short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vlOgN_3QQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vlOgN_3QQ
Iv 10y ago
A pet-peeve of mine. While NASA made everyone holding their breath with overpriced RC rovers that scratched a few rocks, ESA had launched a boring orbiter that "just" gave a map of the water concentration on Mars ( http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RrgXNFu0ocA/Sg_ldzogLlI/AAAAAAAAAEM/dnAYhoC5q_0/s1600/H2Omap.png http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RrgXNFu0ocA/Sg_ldzogLlI/AAAAAAAAAE... ) <- I had to dig through a PPT to find that map on slide 20.
- gghh 10y ago
  Which mission is that data from?
  - mturmon 10y ago
    Probably from Mars Express (2004). The analogous NASA orbiters are MGS (1997), and later, MRO (2005 -- http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/ http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/).

by aedron 10y ago

> No photos will be taken on the surface, because the lander lacks a surface camera. For the love of all that's holy... ESA needs to learn a thing or two from NASA about public relations.

flippyhead 10y ago

Yeah at least we Americans _pretended_ to have cameras when we faked the moon landing.

corecoder 10y ago
Thinking about that, how easier would it be to just say: alas, we cannot bring cameras because reasons...
- grecy 10y ago
  The Americans needed footage of the moon landing to fight the propaganda war against Russia.
kyriakos 10y ago
Do people really believe moon landing was faked? Serious question by the way, I thought it was a conspiracy for tin foil hats and not a serious theory.
- jandrese 10y ago
  There is a certain fringe who seriously believe it, among other things. Your average person on the street doesn't take that theory seriously though.
- mturmon 10y ago
  Of course anyone can believe anything, but here you go: https://chemtrailsplanet.net/2015/12/19/another-nasa-hoax-mars-rovers-discovered-staged-at-devon-island-canada/ https://chemtrailsplanet.net/2015/12/19/another-nasa-hoax-ma...
flippyhead 10y ago
I'm pretty dismayed to re-visit this comment a few days later and realize people didn't get my sarcasm. I always forget the tinfoil _also_ blocks sarcasm.

merraksh 10y ago

ESA needs to learn a thing or two from NASA about public relations. And then choose whether or not to practise these teachings based on space/weight constraints and the type of mission (scientific, in this case). I'm sure they did think about it for a minute, but I have the feeling that the European public opinion doesn't have a "picture or it didn't happen" attitude.

rubber_duck 10y ago
>but I have the feeling that the European public opinion doesn't have a "picture or it didn't happen" attitude It's more that these things are funded up the EU chain, people deciding it don't even need to get elected (and EU representatives get elected on a different issues) so they probably don't give a shit what the public thinks about them spending their money.
- arethuza 10y ago
  Most (80%) of ESA's funding comes directly from countries, not via the EU, so the people making funding decisions are very much directly elected: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_and_the_EU http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_and_the_EU NB I don't know if funding decisions are made on a project by project basis. Edit: Also for the European Commissioners are appointed by the elected governments of member states.
  - rubber_duck 10y ago
    >Also for the European Commissioners are appointed by the elected governments of member states. Who campaign and are elected on issues totally unrelated to things like this. Basically the public probably doesn't even know it's paying for this until it's reported in the news. At least stuff like this gets debated in the US. For example if I walked around in my office among 20 people (with higher education and into tech) and ask them what ESA is I doubt 5 would know what it stands for and even less that they are paying for it. Everyone knows what NASA is.
    - 10y ago

aeharding 10y ago

Although the lander does not have a camera, the rover, due to launch in 2020 as part of the ExoMars mission, does have a panoramic camera system. (It also has other imaging devices.) [1] [1] http://exploration.esa.int/mars/45103-rover-instruments/ http://exploration.esa.int/mars/45103-rover-instruments/

tonmoy 10y ago

This is just a proof of concept lander

maaaats 10y ago

The Rosetta mission (by ESA) just recently have had the best overage I've ever seen. The cute videos, lots of updates, twitter accounts etc.

ceejayoz 10y ago
Not to mention the science fiction short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vlOgN_3QQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vlOgN_3QQ

Iv 10y ago

A pet-peeve of mine. While NASA made everyone holding their breath with overpriced RC rovers that scratched a few rocks, ESA had launched a boring orbiter that "just" gave a map of the water concentration on Mars ( http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RrgXNFu0ocA/Sg_ldzogLlI/AAAAAAAAAEM/dnAYhoC5q_0/s1600/H2Omap.png http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RrgXNFu0ocA/Sg_ldzogLlI/AAAAAAAAAE... ) <- I had to dig through a PPT to find that map on slide 20.

gghh 10y ago
Which mission is that data from?
- mturmon 10y ago
  Probably from Mars Express (2004). The analogous NASA orbiters are MGS (1997), and later, MRO (2005 -- http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/ http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/).