[Beowulf] Re: blackbox on Mars?

[Jakob Oestergaard]

On Fri, Oct 20, 2006 at 04:21:31PM -0400, Robert G. Brown wrote:
...
...
> geosync on Earth, and if the military and weather programs have given us
> nothing else, they've given us simply gangbusters orbital cameras.  I
> mean who on this list hasn't gone on Google Earth yet?  Through EARTH's
> atmosphere and from EARTH orbit you can see my house here:
> 
>   35^\circ 59' 17.10"N
>   78^\circ 58' 50.22"W
> 
> At 512 feet you can clearly make out my Ford Excursion in the driveway,
> see the row of cypruses along the back, see the white table on my back
> deck that is about 4' across, see an azalea bush out front (next to the
> sidewalk) that is about 1.5' across.  And this isn't the world's best
> camera or as high resolution as they could manage, even through Earth's
> soupy atmosphere.

Mmm... Except... The high res images are from a plane because you can't
really make out the fine details from a satellite through the earth's
atmosphere.

If you look closely at the houses or trees, you will see that the
imagery at the fine detail level is very far from orthographic. Some
trees and houses are clearly photographed from their southern side, some
from the northern. For example, your house has a visible north-western
side, while your south-eastern neighbor has a visible south-eastern side
on his house.  The combination of the two images (from two different
passes of the plane) is seamless, but the change of perspective is very
noticable once you notice  :)

-- 

 / jakob