7 ms·

I absolutely love this stuff. The photos to me are strangely eerie, and even perhaps a little sinister. I have trouble comprehending the size of other planets

I absolutely love this stuff. The photos to me are strangely eerie, and even perhaps a little sinister. I have trouble comprehending the size of other planets, photos like these make me feel uneasy (in an exciting way) because they are strikingly similar to landscapes we might find here on earth - yet it's a completely different planet! I'm no longer looking at mars as a red circle as shown in textbooks, but now as vast unseen landscapes that have never been explored before - a new perspective and a new age of discovery and I can't wait to see what else happens in my life. It's also a stunning achievement. As I lie in bed looking up into the darkness, a boundless expanse of tens of millions of miles of absolutely nothing lies between me, and a small man made robot with the martian wind gusting and whistling gently over it. A robot that is cautiously making small movements, buzzing and whirring going about it's business with no one there to hear the sounds or see the movements it's making. A machine who's intentions are totally pure - it's sole purpose is simply to learn. A small beacon in a far-reaching expanse of barrenness and nothingness. One thing I found recently I'd never heard of before is 'Venera 13': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_13 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_13 A Russian rover that landed on Venus in 1981 - designed to last the harsh environment of Venus for 32 minutes but actually lasted 127 minutes. An extraordinary engineering achievement to have a rover go from freezing space temperatures to temperatures of over 450c. And it managed to transmit images of the surface: http://mo-www.harvard.edu/microobs/guestobserverportal/Galileo/ThenNow/Venus/mObsVenusWeb_files/image007.png http://mo-www.harvard.edu/microobs/guestobserverportal/Galil... Absolutely stunning, and in some ways even more eerie and provocative to me than the Mars pictures as the environment it briefly operated in is far more hostile and as time was so limited the images are even more precious.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
stuartcw 14y ago
That's exactly how I felt at 7 in 1975 : http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/viking/viking-20060714.html http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/viking/viking-20060714.htm...
jcarreiro 14y ago
> I have trouble comprehending the size of other planets I'm not sure this will help, but the surface area of Mars is about 1/3 that of Earth. Given that roughly 2/3 of the Earth's surface is covered by water, one can think of the surface of Mars as being roughly equivalent in area to the entire land area of the Earth.
losvedir 14y ago
That image of Venus is wonderful, thanks! I hadn't seen it before. I, too, think this is fascinating stuff. Another cool image comes from Titan, one of Saturn's moons, which we managed to land a probe on.[1] [1] http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/SEMC8Q71Y3E_0.html http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/SEMC8Q71Y3E_0.html
- aerique 14y ago
  There's also an awesome video of that descent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-BwcDNsbmw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-BwcDNsbmw Or: http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/SEMKVQOFGLE_1.html http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/SEMKVQOFGLE_1.html (check the hires download!)
rwhitman 14y ago
Personally I think Venus is the more interesting planet to be exploring
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  I wonder if eating away at the current atmosphere of venus is more or less technically challenging then the task of creating an atmosphere from scratch on Mars. Since Venus also has way more mass, I'm guessing humans would feel more comfortable there then on Mars.
  - jakeonthemove 14y ago
    My thoughts exactly - Venus seems like a better place to start interplanetary exploration with - as I understand, if you could cool it down to an acceptable temperature, you could walk on the surface with just a breathing apparatus, right?
    - jws 14y ago
      It has 92 times Earth's atmospheric pressure at the surface. This would be a bad idea. It would be like being 900 meters deep in the ocean on Earth. 150 meters is about the limit for humans before High Pressure Nervous Syndrome stops the fun. But around 50km above the surface of Venus, the temperatures are nice, and the pressure is 1 earth atmosphere. You just have to to stay up there.
      - powerslave12r 14y ago
        Perfect. Given Venus's gravity is 0.904g, we could work something out in a few years.
      - jcarreiro 14y ago
        > around 50km above the surface of Venus, the temperatures > are nice, and the pressure is 1 earth atmosphere. You just > have to to stay up there. Lando Calrissian just called. He wants his Cloud City back. :)
halitalptekin 14y ago
Some Curiosity's Photos: http://www.halitalptekin.com/yapay-zekali-curiosity.html http://www.halitalptekin.com/yapay-zekali-curiosity.html
jakeonthemove 14y ago
The Venus photos are simply awesome (the probe definitely deserves more recognition :-)), as are those from Mars. It's a shame we can't just hitch a ride to either of the planets to explore them and see them with our own eyes...
Wingman4l7 14y ago
The Venera program is definitely one of the "unsung heroes" of planetary exploration. Perhaps the best resource for surface images of Venus (along with fascinating image reconstruction) is Don P. Mitchell's page: http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm Another fascinating tidbit: the Soviets also performed the first (and to date, only) deployment of a balloon probe on another planet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobot#The_Venus_Vega_balloons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobot#The_Venus_Vega_balloons
- tomfakes 14y ago
  I was going to mention Don - he's a friend of a friend - and the book he's writing about the Russian Venus program. There's a lot of awesome stuff here that almost no-one knows about.
  - Wingman4l7 14y ago
    His series of pages on the Venera program[1] just blows all other resources away, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. He mentions on his copyright page[2] that he studied Russian books/papers, befriended & interviewed Russian scientists, dug up rare photographs, and even processed original spacecraft data with custom C++ code to create some of the images! I look forward to his book; does he have an ETA on the publication date? [1]: http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm [2]: http://www.mentallandscape.com/Copyright.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/Copyright.htm
    - tomfakes 14y ago
      All his friends are pestering him about when he's releasing this book - he's under no pressure to publish and rather enjoys the process of digging up all this stuff and writing the code to process these images.
- jl6 14y ago
  Wow, this is the first I've heard of the balloon mission. I wonder how long the balloons stayed afloat after the batteries ran down...
6ren 14y ago
I find Saturn's moon Titan most earth-like, in that it has liquids, forming rivers and lakes - "geological" features missing from most (all?) other local planets and moons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakes_of_Titan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakes_of_Titan; also http://www.world-science.net/othernews/120723_titan.htm http://www.world-science.net/othernews/120723_titan.htm; and geological analysis (video) http://www.space.com/16674-rivers-on-saturn-s-moon-titan-puzzle-scientists-video.html http://www.space.com/16674-rivers-on-saturn-s-moon-titan-puz...
alexsb92 14y ago
I can completely correlate to the uneasiness brought by truly realizing the scale of things. If you do like video games, one that had such an intended effect on me was the first Mass Effect. There are a number of side missions where you descend onto planets in a multi-terrain vehicle and are supposed to check some things out (you can get out of the rover as well). Although for the most part the planets are barren (much like Mars), I found them incredibly effective at sending the scale message across. The most incredible one though, was a side mission on the Moon, with Earth right up above you. Though the scale wasn't 100% accurate, it still made for one of the most impressive moments in video games for me.
sown 14y ago
> I absolutely love this stuff. The photos to me are strangely eerie, and even perhaps a little sinister. It's actually reassuring to me. It's rocks. We understand rocks. I'm surrounded by them. There may not be a blade of grass, a gasp of air or a friendly face to greet us but at least there are rocks.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

stuartcw 14y ago

That's exactly how I felt at 7 in 1975 : http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/viking/viking-20060714.html http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/viking/viking-20060714.htm...

jcarreiro 14y ago

> I have trouble comprehending the size of other planets I'm not sure this will help, but the surface area of Mars is about 1/3 that of Earth. Given that roughly 2/3 of the Earth's surface is covered by water, one can think of the surface of Mars as being roughly equivalent in area to the entire land area of the Earth.

losvedir 14y ago

That image of Venus is wonderful, thanks! I hadn't seen it before. I, too, think this is fascinating stuff. Another cool image comes from Titan, one of Saturn's moons, which we managed to land a probe on.[1] [1] http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/SEMC8Q71Y3E_0.html http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/SEMC8Q71Y3E_0.html

aerique 14y ago
There's also an awesome video of that descent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-BwcDNsbmw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-BwcDNsbmw Or: http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/SEMKVQOFGLE_1.html http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/SEMKVQOFGLE_1.html (check the hires download!)

rwhitman 14y ago

Personally I think Venus is the more interesting planet to be exploring

seanalltogether 14y ago
I wonder if eating away at the current atmosphere of venus is more or less technically challenging then the task of creating an atmosphere from scratch on Mars. Since Venus also has way more mass, I'm guessing humans would feel more comfortable there then on Mars.
- jakeonthemove 14y ago
  My thoughts exactly - Venus seems like a better place to start interplanetary exploration with - as I understand, if you could cool it down to an acceptable temperature, you could walk on the surface with just a breathing apparatus, right?
  - jws 14y ago
    It has 92 times Earth's atmospheric pressure at the surface. This would be a bad idea. It would be like being 900 meters deep in the ocean on Earth. 150 meters is about the limit for humans before High Pressure Nervous Syndrome stops the fun. But around 50km above the surface of Venus, the temperatures are nice, and the pressure is 1 earth atmosphere. You just have to to stay up there.
    - powerslave12r 14y ago
      Perfect. Given Venus's gravity is 0.904g, we could work something out in a few years.
    - jcarreiro 14y ago
      > around 50km above the surface of Venus, the temperatures > are nice, and the pressure is 1 earth atmosphere. You just > have to to stay up there. Lando Calrissian just called. He wants his Cloud City back. :)

halitalptekin 14y ago

Some Curiosity's Photos: http://www.halitalptekin.com/yapay-zekali-curiosity.html http://www.halitalptekin.com/yapay-zekali-curiosity.html

jakeonthemove 14y ago

The Venus photos are simply awesome (the probe definitely deserves more recognition :-)), as are those from Mars. It's a shame we can't just hitch a ride to either of the planets to explore them and see them with our own eyes...

Wingman4l7 14y ago

The Venera program is definitely one of the "unsung heroes" of planetary exploration. Perhaps the best resource for surface images of Venus (along with fascinating image reconstruction) is Don P. Mitchell's page: http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm Another fascinating tidbit: the Soviets also performed the first (and to date, only) deployment of a balloon probe on another planet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobot#The_Venus_Vega_balloons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobot#The_Venus_Vega_balloons

tomfakes 14y ago
I was going to mention Don - he's a friend of a friend - and the book he's writing about the Russian Venus program. There's a lot of awesome stuff here that almost no-one knows about.
- Wingman4l7 14y ago
  His series of pages on the Venera program[1] just blows all other resources away, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. He mentions on his copyright page[2] that he studied Russian books/papers, befriended & interviewed Russian scientists, dug up rare photographs, and even processed original spacecraft data with custom C++ code to create some of the images! I look forward to his book; does he have an ETA on the publication date? [1]: http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm [2]: http://www.mentallandscape.com/Copyright.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/Copyright.htm
  - tomfakes 14y ago
    All his friends are pestering him about when he's releasing this book - he's under no pressure to publish and rather enjoys the process of digging up all this stuff and writing the code to process these images.
jl6 14y ago
Wow, this is the first I've heard of the balloon mission. I wonder how long the balloons stayed afloat after the batteries ran down...

6ren 14y ago

I find Saturn's moon Titan most earth-like, in that it has liquids, forming rivers and lakes - "geological" features missing from most (all?) other local planets and moons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakes_of_Titan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakes_of_Titan; also http://www.world-science.net/othernews/120723_titan.htm http://www.world-science.net/othernews/120723_titan.htm; and geological analysis (video) http://www.space.com/16674-rivers-on-saturn-s-moon-titan-puzzle-scientists-video.html http://www.space.com/16674-rivers-on-saturn-s-moon-titan-puz...

alexsb92 14y ago

I can completely correlate to the uneasiness brought by truly realizing the scale of things. If you do like video games, one that had such an intended effect on me was the first Mass Effect. There are a number of side missions where you descend onto planets in a multi-terrain vehicle and are supposed to check some things out (you can get out of the rover as well). Although for the most part the planets are barren (much like Mars), I found them incredibly effective at sending the scale message across. The most incredible one though, was a side mission on the Moon, with Earth right up above you. Though the scale wasn't 100% accurate, it still made for one of the most impressive moments in video games for me.

sown 14y ago

> I absolutely love this stuff. The photos to me are strangely eerie, and even perhaps a little sinister. It's actually reassuring to me. It's rocks. We understand rocks. I'm surrounded by them. There may not be a blade of grass, a gasp of air or a friendly face to greet us but at least there are rocks.