https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/22/nasa-releases-video-of-perseverance-rover-landing-on-mars

Just incredible.

I for one desperately hope all efforts fail. There is nowhere mankind has gone where the result is not desecration, destruction, pollution and crass exploitation. We ruin everything we touch. The best equivalent model for our species is cancer. I despair and glad I'm old enough to not see the end result of our madness. (Apologies but feel very strongly about this)

Your a cheery lad, or ladette

Amazing images are being sent back from engineering cameras only.



NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Rover Down-Look Camera. This camera is mounted on the bottom of the rover and looks down at the surface.



This image was acquired on Feb. 22, 2021 (Sol 2) at the local mean solar time of 10:37:19.

What dies mean solar time actually refer to?

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/hirise-captured-perseverance-during-descent-to-mars

The descent stage holding NASA’s Perseverance rover can be seen falling through the Martian atmosphere, its parachute trailing behind, in this image taken on Feb. 18, 2021, by the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The ancient river delta, which is the target of the Perseverance mission, can be seen entering Jezero Crater from the left.

HiRISE was approximately 435 miles (700 kilometers) from Perseverance and traveling at about 6750 mile per hour (3 kilometers per second) at the time the image was taken.  The extreme distance and high speeds of the two spacecraft were challenging conditions that required precise timing and for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to both pitch upward and roll hard to the left so that Perseverance was viewable by HiRISE at just the right moment.

The orbiter’s mission is led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona provided and operates HiRISE.

This one here amazing.


NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Rover Down-Look Camera. This camera is mounted on the bottom of the rover and looks down at the surface. This image was acquired on Feb. 22, 2021 (Sol 2) at the local mean solar time of 10:32:57.

What dies mean solar time actually refer to?

A Mars solar day has a mean period of 24 hours 39 minutes 35.244 seconds, and is customarily referred to as a "sol" in order to distinguish this from the roughly 3% shorter solar day on Earth.

I for one desperately hope all efforts fail. There is nowhere mankind has gone where the result is not desecration, destruction, pollution and crass exploitation. We ruin everything we touch. The best equivalent model for our species is cancer. I despair and glad I'm old enough to not see the end result of our madness. (Apologies but feel very strongly about this)

Well yes and no, but I also feel its getting better. The big elephant in the room on the whole CO2 / global warming debate is what appears to be a complete failure to address the population issue, the main cause for the problems you mention. While its now obvious that the world population is forecast to drop, what is Australia doing about it? Answer SFA! We continue to provide welfare to encourage people to breed with +3 children per women families, although yes these larger families are also in decline. However why haven't we set a population limit for the country?


Back to Mars
The rover's job is to find either signs of former life or potentially maybe hibernated life.

If life had previously started but stopped, then mother nature is clearly more destructive than Man. Or maybe if life has never started on Mars then in both cases the planet is a dead rock and humans are free to go and live it up knowing nothing can be destroyed.

If life is still on Mars, then this is where it gets messy. Mars is by international treaty not a sovereign state nor can be claimed, so there will need to be some joint effort to protect the life on Mars and VV protect humans from it.

One way or another Humans are headed to Mars and we need to know if life is or was there, ideally before we arrive.

Something to think about.
Every footprint, tyre track left on the Moon will remain for around 1 billion years, is this pollution on a dead rock? Within 20 years there will be likely 1000's more than today. All the man made objects currently on the moon while still belonging to the country of origin (by international law), will remain for likely 100,000's of years. Likewise other man made objects left on Mars, Venus, Mercury,  some of the moons in the solar system and of course about 4 or 5 objects that are leaving the solar system. Is this all polluton?

When will we start to see some HD images from the new rover?

When will we start to see some HD images from the new rover?

Some started coming through, it sent a pano the other day.

Maximum 20MB of upload per day, things take time.

New Horizons took over a year to send back all the pictures and data of Pluto it collected in only a few hours, likewise the potato rock dwarf planet, Ultima Thule.

The little copter is about to get its prime time viewing this weekend.  https://www.railpage.com.au/news/s/nasa-invites-public-to-take-flight-with-ingenuity-mars-helicopter

Can't wait to see how it goes.

The helicopter is ready to go



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYSy1UpQdVg