VMC - webcam on Mars
A man of the 21st century cannot be surprised by live-frames from orbit or from Antarctica. But it seems that very few people hoped to shoot Mars online. Thanks to the European Space Agency, this omission has been corrected.
Three active research satellites now rotate in Mars orbit. Two of them belong to NASA, one - Mars Express - ESA. Each of the satellites is equipped with cameras of different resolution, different focal lengths and various scientific purposes. Now we get images of the surface with a detail of 25 cm per pixel. But, by a strange coincidence, none of the designers thought about placing a camera to fully cover the Martian disk. But the case helped to fix this thing.
When Europe sent its apparatus to Mars, it consisted of two parts. In addition to the orbital module, he carried the descent module. Named after Charles Darwin’s Beagle-2, he was to search for life on the Red Planet. But never did. From the surface of Mars, he did not come out in touch, and the ESA acknowledged his loss.
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To capture the process of undocking from the orbital station and the first stage of descent, a low-resolution VMC (Visual Monitoring Camera) camera was placed on the satellite. Undoing she never took off (or removed but did not publish it), and the use of the camera at a later time was not intended. However, the satellite flew for a long time, so they decided to use it to shoot Mars and were not disappointed.
Mars Express has an elliptical orbit - this distinguishes it from two American fellows who have a close circular one. Because of this, we have the opportunity to see Mars in full coverage, which in a circular orbit would not work.
Therefore, we see in the frames of the VMC process of approaching and moving away from Mars.
Since 2010, the camera had problems and did not receive personnel from it. Work to return it to the system was carried out slowly, as scientists do not attach much importance to this camera due to its low resolution. But now, it seems the situation has changed. By May, the programmers managed to solve the camera problem and it started working again.
(The composition of frames from May to December 2012. You can look at the full format there )
By December, another nice thing was added. The camera almost automatically began to post ready colored frames on Flickr .
Now there is no full-fledged online. But for some days you can find a series of frames, from which, if you wish, you can assemble yourself an animation of the flyby of Mars.
News and camera information can be found on her blog .
However, sometimes you can find such incredible shots as this, with the image of a double cloudy cyclone on Mars.
In general, the camera is best suited just to observe the Martian clouds.
A novice explorer of Mars should be warned that on the lens of the camera somehow appeared curious spots that may appear to an unprepared viewer as a link of rebel fighters hurrying to Tatooine
It is strange that journalists of popular publications have still not heard about these spots and have not cheered the world with the detected alien ships hurrying to Earth by the 21st of December.
Three active research satellites now rotate in Mars orbit. Two of them belong to NASA, one - Mars Express - ESA. Each of the satellites is equipped with cameras of different resolution, different focal lengths and various scientific purposes. Now we get images of the surface with a detail of 25 cm per pixel. But, by a strange coincidence, none of the designers thought about placing a camera to fully cover the Martian disk. But the case helped to fix this thing.
When Europe sent its apparatus to Mars, it consisted of two parts. In addition to the orbital module, he carried the descent module. Named after Charles Darwin’s Beagle-2, he was to search for life on the Red Planet. But never did. From the surface of Mars, he did not come out in touch, and the ESA acknowledged his loss.
')
To capture the process of undocking from the orbital station and the first stage of descent, a low-resolution VMC (Visual Monitoring Camera) camera was placed on the satellite. Undoing she never took off (or removed but did not publish it), and the use of the camera at a later time was not intended. However, the satellite flew for a long time, so they decided to use it to shoot Mars and were not disappointed.
Mars Express has an elliptical orbit - this distinguishes it from two American fellows who have a close circular one. Because of this, we have the opportunity to see Mars in full coverage, which in a circular orbit would not work.
Therefore, we see in the frames of the VMC process of approaching and moving away from Mars.
Since 2010, the camera had problems and did not receive personnel from it. Work to return it to the system was carried out slowly, as scientists do not attach much importance to this camera due to its low resolution. But now, it seems the situation has changed. By May, the programmers managed to solve the camera problem and it started working again.
(The composition of frames from May to December 2012. You can look at the full format there )
By December, another nice thing was added. The camera almost automatically began to post ready colored frames on Flickr .
Now there is no full-fledged online. But for some days you can find a series of frames, from which, if you wish, you can assemble yourself an animation of the flyby of Mars.
News and camera information can be found on her blog .
However, sometimes you can find such incredible shots as this, with the image of a double cloudy cyclone on Mars.
In general, the camera is best suited just to observe the Martian clouds.
A novice explorer of Mars should be warned that on the lens of the camera somehow appeared curious spots that may appear to an unprepared viewer as a link of rebel fighters hurrying to Tatooine
It is strange that journalists of popular publications have still not heard about these spots and have not cheered the world with the detected alien ships hurrying to Earth by the 21st of December.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/163389/
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