Ravenwood - 05/23/03 02:15 PM
The Mars Global Surveyer space craft is already paying off. After six and a half years and millions of dollars, the spacecraft that has been orbiting the red planet has produced a blurry photo of the Earth.
(click on the photo)
The continents shown in the photo are North and South America. While it doesn't compare with photos from our own orbit, or from the moon, the view from Mars is interesting and unique. I'm just not sure if it is worth all those tax dollars.
UPDATE: It should be noted that NASA didn't even splurge for a color camera. The photo above was apparently sent over the the colorization labs at TBS, so that the blue color could be added to the Earth. To view the originial black and white photo, click here. (very large photo 800+ kb, not at all worth it. It was mostly just empty space. As a public service, I cropped out the empty space and put the resulting photo here.)
A couple of years ago, to my amazement, I read in Discover magazine that all space photos are colorized before they are released.
Posted by: Justene at May 24, 2003 7:20 PMInteresting how the original has no Moon either. As for NASA spending, they only get 1/7th of a % of the US budget each year (or there abouts). We'd have colonys on the Moon and Mars in very little time if we really wanted to.
Posted by: Marc at May 24, 2003 9:50 PMJudging by the comments on this page, if I search further I will probably find out that President Bush ordered the 9/11 attacks so that he could despoil the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge with no public outcry.
Posted by: Fred Lougee at November 18, 2003 8:56 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
