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In sci.physics, malibu
<vegan16@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on 31 Dec 2006 08:41:07 -0800
<1167583267.499479.11810@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Amazing, isn't it? NASA's Opportunity rover, which has been slowly
> travelling across the surface of Mars to return to us so many wonderful
> pictures, has itself been imaged from space.
Yes...from a satellite orbiting Mars. Hubble can't see it; it doesn't
have the resolution. (Hubble can't even see the flag on the moon.)
> It's image was taken by
> the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from an altitude of 297
> kilometres. The picture's resolution is so good that the rover's
> tracks can be seen, as well as its shadow across the ground.
> Individual boulders, of 2 metres length, are resolved from a height of
> 300 kilometres!
>
> Well, we all know how amazing imaging technology has become these days,
> and we hear about satellites orbiting Earth being able to take the most
> incredibly detailed images from space. Google Earth must be child's
> play compared to the advanced Department of Defence instrumentation in
> space.
>
> This is all very well, until we come to talk about the surface of the
> Moon. Because, at that point, we are told that there is no possibility
> of the Apollo lunar lander modules left on the Moon's surface being
> imaged using today's technology.
Not from LEO. Maybe from something like Clementine with higher
resolution capability.
> We are told that the 1999 Clementine
> DoD lunar satellite was incapable of imaging the equipment left by NASA
> astronauts. That the Hubble Space Telescope is similarly unable to
> pick out these landers.
>
> Hmmm. And all the moon pictures were 'lost' when they
> were sent to be digitized.
>
> Anybody smell a great big government rat?
Only you. In any event *something* is up there; routine laser-ranging
is done from Earth to Moon using Moon-placed corner reflectors. One
might quibble about what put them up there, of course, but there are
five (although only four can be used; the fifth one, which was a Russian
lander, apparently fell over or something).
>
> John
>
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
- allegedly said by Bill Gates, 1981, but somebody had to make this up!
--
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