NASA LIVE: Mars Perseverance Rover Landing

[JohnVF]

Here it was narrated by this awesome woman who was one of the lead engineers. At least the feed I saw. Not really narrated just her mission commentary and the occasional shout out of “that’s normal” from across the room when something sounded, to the outside world, more dire than it was.

I was a bit unprepared for how much more faith in humanity and my country I’ve had from this mission. That photo of “Percy” hanging from the sky crane just before touchdown is amazing. It’s like this magical Rube Goldberg device that amazingly has worked twice now.

 

[JohnVF]

NASA just released the video footage of the landing. Incredible! I think this is the first true video footage ever shot on mars. Previous video-like footage was stitched together still frames.

 

[Wntrmute2]

Incredible! My heart was in my throat watching that and I knew all would be OK.

 

[JohnVF]

I really like the part where the skycrane with the rockets on it just detaches and goes, "See ya! Have a nice trip!"

The atmosphere was a lot more blue than I'd thought.

 

[mhardy6647]

The atmosphere was a lot more blue than I'd thought.

The blue sky caught my eye, too.

Remember (maybe you're too young?!) the first (still) photos we got back from the... umm... whichever Mars lander (Viking -- 1976)? The sky was very blue; the whole scene very Earthlike. NASA quickly said there was a calibration error & re-calibrated the sky to a dusty, summery hazy yellow-pink.

Color Controversies Started With Mars, Not With #TheDress

It may seem like a trivial pursuit to argue over the color of a dress, but the question of color balance can apply to the hunt for Mars life as well.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[JohnVF]

The blue sky caught my eye, too.

Remember (maybe you're too young?!) the first (still) photos we got back from the... umm... whichever Mars lander (Viking -- 1976)? The sky was very blue; the whole scene very Earthlike. NASA quickly said there was a calibration error & re-calibrated the sky to a dusty, summery hazy yellow-pink.

View attachment 33553

Color Controversies Started With Mars, Not With #TheDress

It may seem like a trivial pursuit to argue over the color of a dress, but the question of color balance can apply to the hunt for Mars life as well.

www.nbcnews.com

View attachment 33554

I never saw those original Viking photos (I was...2?). But watching this thing come down today I was really excited to see a blue sky. They're supposedly using some advanced but fairly off the shelf cameras for this mission so maybe, like almost every good camera today, its shooting a pretty honest color profile/white balance/hue off out of the camera.


Of the three images here, if I were to pull them up from a digital camera, I'd have automatically gravitated towards the right as the one that doesn't look like its had some sort of grading/filter applied to it, but...I'm judging that based on what Earth looks like. It just looks more nuanced, the others look like they were shot through orange gels. Crazy.

Until they show me otherwise I'm going with Mr Blue Sky.

 

[mhardy6647]

Until they show me otherwise I'm going with Mr Blue Sky.

ahhhh! ahhhhhhhhhhh!! earworm!!! earworm!!!!!!!!!

It's... it's too late for me... save yourselves! SAVE YOURSELVES!!!

 

[mhardy6647]

I actually really like the end of Mr. Blue Sky.
(and, no, not because it's the end...)