I'm watching on NASA TV thanks to streaming video (and a rather obscure but nicely powered Helix server) and I'm just blown away. I'm a bit frustrated; every picture from Pathfinder went straight to the 'net raw back in 1997. I remember playing with the raws as they came down, loading them into Photoshop and enjoying pulling out the details, following the recipes that JPL published. I want those pictures those guys are seeing on the big board, not just the picture-of-a-picture from the JPL cameras in the room. And I want them now. And I want Justin Ray to tell me where to find them! Or JPL. Somebody! I'm totally thrilled by this.
And the fact that everything is going so well, that 12 minutes of 32kbs data came down, with great photos and all the telemetry of the landing, is just too much. NASA needs this kind of good stuff.
I went downstairs to watch the news, and it came and went. For a few minutes, CNN and FOX had the "first pictures from Mars" on, and then they turned to other things. Isn't this the most thrilling thing on the news right now? Who gives a fuck that Sex and the City is going off the air? Isn't that news for another day, really? Isn't it just TOO COOL that we've made it to Mars, and it worked, and a big functional robot is about to wander around?
I guess not. And the bimbo from FOX... what is she on, anyway? "Well, we're not scientists so we don't see in this pictures what the NASA people can see." They're not cheering at anything you can't figure out with the grey matter you supposedly have between your brain! "Look, the colors are right!" "Look, the camera is pointed the right way!" "Look, it's freaking Mars!"
My cynicism might be a little strong but that feels like a FOX party line. I can just see the set-up for a few months from now: "Your taxpayer money bought these geeks their thrills, but what do lay people get out of it?"
Anyway, I'm going to go look at the little red planet and enjoy our success.
And the fact that everything is going so well, that 12 minutes of 32kbs data came down, with great photos and all the telemetry of the landing, is just too much. NASA needs this kind of good stuff.
I went downstairs to watch the news, and it came and went. For a few minutes, CNN and FOX had the "first pictures from Mars" on, and then they turned to other things. Isn't this the most thrilling thing on the news right now? Who gives a fuck that Sex and the City is going off the air? Isn't that news for another day, really? Isn't it just TOO COOL that we've made it to Mars, and it worked, and a big functional robot is about to wander around?
I guess not. And the bimbo from FOX... what is she on, anyway? "Well, we're not scientists so we don't see in this pictures what the NASA people can see." They're not cheering at anything you can't figure out with the grey matter you supposedly have between your brain! "Look, the colors are right!" "Look, the camera is pointed the right way!" "Look, it's freaking Mars!"
My cynicism might be a little strong but that feels like a FOX party line. I can just see the set-up for a few months from now: "Your taxpayer money bought these geeks their thrills, but what do lay people get out of it?"
Anyway, I'm going to go look at the little red planet and enjoy our success.
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