Interesting Mars Vegetation Pictures!

[Dantheman62]

.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
September 01, 2008 Clouds scoot across the Martian sky in a movie clip consisting of 10 frames taken by the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander.

[Dantheman62]

Where's your pics Jack? LOL!

[Jack]

Patience is a virtue my friend


Shown below is the first color picture from Spirit. The one on the left is the official NASA version, and the one on the right is an adjusted, or re-adjusted, version of the same picture in which there is reduced redness. Which appears more natural or real to you? (Click on the pictures to see larger versions.)



Of course, it could be that the Martian landscape is really as red as the NASA version shows. But given that it's scientifically acceptable for the Martian sky to be more or less blue, combined with the fact that we have quite compelling photographic evidence like one shown below from the Viking missions exposing the excessive redness of the original pictures released by NASA (the adjusted version on the right shows the colors of the American flag accurately), it is not so farfetched to suppose that NASA has been deceiving all of us about the real appearance of Mars all these years. [The 'correct' image below was produced by Barry Arneson (?) in 2001.]





January 7-8: Canadian Press/Yahoo! News has posted an earth-like color version of the Mars picture from the NASA Spirit rover that is identical to the one used in my Jan. 7 post which was quickly produced with Photoshop.

Comparison ('official' version left; 'Canadian' version right):




January 8-9: NASA sends mixed signals [source]. Here are two versions of the same Martian picture from Spirit posted on two different NASA webpages:






By creating this kind of confusion, it becomes easier to gradually phase out the probably misleading, red Mars appearance familiar to us and bring in the more earth-like, 'real' pictures of Mars... But that's still just a theory.


January 9: Here is more (apparent) evidence of color 'manipulation' being done - deliberately or accidentally - by NASA. The illustration below I just produced should make the discrepancies rather plain. Very strange. (Pictures used in the illustration are from here and here.)

Update: The color change of the 'sundial' is not necessarily a sign of a 'conspiracy', but it does suggest, well actually it's a given, that the photo was not quite correctly calibrated. As Keith Laney states:

So far the only image showing the calibration target in the same view as the surface and sky showed conclusively that the image was not calibrated properly. The blue is hot pink, the green is virtually nonexistent and the red is brown. This explains the ruddy caste to the ground and sky in this otherwise beautiful image.



And here is another curious photographic anomaly brought to my attention...



What does this mean? Who knows... If you're puzzled, you're certainly not alone.


January 10-11: A light-blue sky of Mars shown during a NASA news conference (Jan. 10). I guess if the NASA guys don't make a big deal of the shifting colors of Mars, the media won't find it strange either. If this keeps up, Earth-like Mars images will become 'normal' rather quickly.





January 12: NASA released a 360-degree panoramic picture of the Martian surface. Well, it's still very red and the sundial area has been rather conveniently cut out from this photo.



January 13: On January 11, Keith Laney (a photo-processing expert) posted his carefully processed Spirit picture from Mars which he believes shows the true colors of Mars. In an online forum he gave us the following information:

Making sense of the Pancam and color

looking into this, we can see that actually the Pancam isn't true color, but it is close, a lot closer than Ody [Odyssey?]. Not that the representations we're seeing are correct.

"What!?!? not true color! exactly what do you mean mr. Laney?"

well, it is in sorts, but it isn't "true" because color response is actually varied depending on observer and other factors such as lighting and atmosphere. We all know that "true" RGB wavelengths are something that cannot be nailed down to a definite value, the response is more a curve. average response for RGB is a given however, and these values are..

Red 650nm+/-
Green 510nm+/-
Blue 440nm+/-

Now we get to the Pancam, which is a remarkable piece of imaging technology, and very complex. It has two "eyes", left and right. they both see differently. Here are the filter positions.

LEFT CAMERA RIGHT CAMERA

L1. EMPTY R1. 430 (SP) *
L2. 750 (20) R2. 750 (20)
L3. 670 (20) R3. 800 (20)
L4. 600 (20) R4. 860 (25)
L5. 530 (20) R5. 900 (25)
L6. 480 (25) R6. 930 (30)
L7. 430 (SP)* R7. 980 (LP)*
L8. 440 Solar ND R8. 880 Solar ND

SP means short pass filter, LP means long pass filter. one lens on each side is coated so it can observe the sun (solar ND) L1 is clear, no filter

Using this chart for reference we see that the left eye is of main use for color imaging, with values covering acceptable rgb values. This means that in order for meaningful evaluation of the color or infrared combinations produced from these images to we will have to have them displayed so that we can obtain all the bands, and in more than compressed jpeg. which doesn't seem to be the case

until then, we have to "trust 'em". which is not imaging or science.

[...] a vitally important point of [this is] that it is ENTIRELY possible for us to get unquestionably true color images out of this thing. I'm looking for more full left side imagery right now, and it will be very soon that I'm fixing to show you what Spirit says is the no **** about it true colors of this area. I just happen to have the answer for this shell game played with spectral bands.

And a little later Laney revealed his 'image showing 'Mars in true as you can get it color', adding 'It's an exciting day!'. Here it is. (Go to www.keithlaney.com/spirit_color_images.htm for more.)



This is very different from NASA's version, that's for sure... Very Earth-like. Is this the real Mars?



Courtesy of here

[Dantheman62]

Thanks Jack, yeah I've seen these before, isn't it weird I mean why do they do that?, what do we care if Mars is red or brown or pink or purple, why don't they just show the true colors?

[Jack]

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

Thanks Jack, yeah I've seen these before, isn't it weird I mean why do they do that?, what do we care if Mars is red or brown or pink or purple, why don't they just show the true colors?

Because then they would have to admit the fact that it is very similar to earth and as a result may very well be capable of harbouring life. But thats not the revelation their worried about. Their worried about the questions that would follow.. such as : So.. well, if theres life on mars.. and mars is double the distance of the earth from the sun.. well.. shouldnt it be covered in ice? ... THEN they would have to explain how each planet is heated internally and its capability of harbouring life is not determined by its distance from the sun but determined by its internal structure which may very well be hollow for all we know, why its hard to know when were being fed so much lies.

Then they would have to pretty much tells us that they have lied about everything that they have told us after spending billions of our taxpayers money to fund missions regarding space research and all that hoolah.

That Dan, is why (its my take anyway)

[Orion11]

Well said,
I agree bro.
<3

[Dantheman62]

HaHa true, and then, and then, and then.......

[Swanny]

Australia is red in places





My old ford falcon was full of red dust

[Dantheman62]

[Dantheman62]

so is Georgia Swanny....












Pigeon Mountain, north Georgia, USA.

[Dantheman62]

This HRSC image, taken by the Mars Express, provides a perspective view of residual water ice on the floor of Vastitas Borealis Crater on Mars.

[KathyT]

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

[IMG]

I have seen this photo before, on another internet forum, but when I tried to find the original source of this photo... who created it, I could not find the source.

Does anyone know where this originally came from?

[Humble Janitor]

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

Dude, keep up the good work. I can always use the chuckles I get from some of your posts.

[Dantheman62]

6 March 2009
ESA’s Mars Express orbiter imaged the snow-laden region of Rupes Tenuis on the martian north pole on 29 July 2008.

The images are centred around 81° north and 297° east and have a ground resolution of 41 m/pixel. They cover an area of about 44 000 km2, almost as large as the Netherlands.


Rupes Tenuis context map


Rupes Tenuis is located at the southern edge of the martian north polar cap, approximately 5500 km northeast of the Tharsis volcanic region.







At present, polar caps contain the largest water reservoir on the Red Planet. Recent data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) on board Mars Express has revealed that both polar ice caps are 3.5 km thick.


The deep water-ice polar cap is covered by a layer of carbon dioxide ice that is centimetres to decimetres thick. During the warmer summer months, most of the carbon dioxide ice sublimates directly to vapour, and escapes into the atmosphere, leaving behind the harder water-ice layers.

[Dantheman62]

Hey KathyT I think I got it off of flickr, like this one.......

[Swanny]

A travelers saying
If you go somewhere and there is a McDonalds your too late


Great pic

Dan, I missed this thread the first time around- that first post had me in stitches mate, I LOVE the last picture from it!

Marvin lives!

[Dantheman62]

[Dantheman62]

[Dantheman62]

[Dantheman62]

[Dantheman62]

Mars Sandcastle