Solar Conjunction Explained

Solar conjunction and how it affects missions to Mars.

Before watching this, I had no idea this was a problem.



The comment: "How can I put the Sun between me and my boss?" wins the internet.

Video Footage of Curiosity's Descent to Mars

This 4fps video, released by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shows the final two and a half minutes of Curiosity's descent to the surface of Mars from the point of heat shield separation to touchdown, as captured by Curiosity's Mars Descent Imager (MARDI).




Although very fascinating, it is neither fluid, nor very detailed.

In steps Youtube user Bard Canning who took this original footage and made it into a 30fps video through a process known as interpolation. From Wikipedia:

"Motion interpolation is a form of video processing in which intermediate animation frames are generated between existing ones, in an attempt to make animation more fluid."

This meant that he had to re-create 26 frames in every second from the 4 frames per second of the original video. It took him 4 weeks, but the result is, as he describes it:

"Ultra-resolution, smooth-motion, detail-enhanced, color-corrected, interpolated from the original 4 frames per second to 30 frames per second. This video plays real-time at the speed that Curiosity descended to the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012."

Here is his video (he also added sound effects):




And here is a comparison between original and interpolated video:



Although Bard Canning's video is not 100% "real", I believe it is within acceptable limits of accuracy and definitely more impressive and informative than the original.

Landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars

After a journey of just over 8 months, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Mission is about to reach Mars and in a few hours will attempt to land the rover Curiosity on the surface of the planet. At 900kg (the size of a small car) it is the largest Mars Rover yet. It is equipped with a plethora of scientific instruments. Its objectives are to (source Wikipedia):

1. Determine whether Mars could ever have supported life
2. Study the climate of Mars
3. Study the geology of Mars
   
4. Plan for a human mission to Mars

I particularly like #4.
Fingers crossed. Let's hope everything goes according to plan (see video).


A few thoughts. The cost of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission is at about US$2.5 billion.
The defence budget of the US for 2012 was US$711 billion.
For the same year NASA's budget was US$17.8 billion.

Imagine how much more amazing work could be done if just US$50 billion was cut from the defence budget and allocated to NASA.