Correa Neto
Philosopher
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2003
- Messages
- 8,548
LTC8K6 said:
Hey, that is mine! I was with that on the latest worm-riding competition.
Don't you dare blaming my worm-riding skills for any damage on that wheeled NASA thingie!
NASA Mars conspiracy stuff: Some help needed please!
- Thread starter Donn
- Start date
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- Tags
- conspiracy help mars nasa
Hey, that is mine! I was with that on the latest worm-riding competition.
Don't you dare blaming my worm-riding skills for any damage on that wheeled NASA thingie!
Randy with a "Y"
New Blood
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2003
- Messages
- 12
Don't forget that the camera(s) on the mars rovers all send back black and white images.
The colors that we see are achieved by two things:
1) Colored filters are placed over the lens of the camera(s)
2) The colors are calibrated by taking pictures of a special calibration target on each rover.
Click Here to see what the calibration target looks like.
A series of pictures, taken with different filters over the lens, are sent back from mars. There is one picture for each "color" (wavelength) of light. (Red, Green and Blue for instance... I don't know the details but you get the general idea.)
All of these pictures are received on earth. Computer technicians combine them together with some kind of photo manipulation software. (Photoshop, for all intents and purposes.) Then the resulting "composite" images are compared to the images of the calibration target to be sure they are as true, colorwise, as we can make them.
So... if the computer technicians make mistakes using Photoshop (or whatever program NASA/JPL uses to process their images... GIMP, maybe?) then, of course the images will be wrong in terms of color. Even if the technicians did a perfect job it is still only our best educated guess as to what the color of mars really is.
Until a MAN stands on the surface of the planet, raises his sun visor, peers out over the landscape and declares, "Mars is red!", will we ever know for sure.
Who knows? Maybe mars is really PURPLE with little yellow spots?!
PS: If you want to know more about the mars rovers check out their official website: marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov
The colors that we see are achieved by two things:
1) Colored filters are placed over the lens of the camera(s)
2) The colors are calibrated by taking pictures of a special calibration target on each rover.
Click Here to see what the calibration target looks like.
A series of pictures, taken with different filters over the lens, are sent back from mars. There is one picture for each "color" (wavelength) of light. (Red, Green and Blue for instance... I don't know the details but you get the general idea.)
All of these pictures are received on earth. Computer technicians combine them together with some kind of photo manipulation software. (Photoshop, for all intents and purposes.) Then the resulting "composite" images are compared to the images of the calibration target to be sure they are as true, colorwise, as we can make them.
So... if the computer technicians make mistakes using Photoshop (or whatever program NASA/JPL uses to process their images... GIMP, maybe?) then, of course the images will be wrong in terms of color. Even if the technicians did a perfect job it is still only our best educated guess as to what the color of mars really is.
Until a MAN stands on the surface of the planet, raises his sun visor, peers out over the landscape and declares, "Mars is red!", will we ever know for sure.
Who knows? Maybe mars is really PURPLE with little yellow spots?!
PS: If you want to know more about the mars rovers check out their official website: marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov