If the earth were only 100 pixels wide (instead of 12,756 kms.), what would the distance to Mars look like? Two British designers, Jesse Williams and David Paliwoda, have devised a neat interactive animation to show you the answer, along with how far it is to a GPS satellite and the moon. . Don't stop here. Click on the image (or here) to see the animation for yourself. Hint:  Even at an impossible 3x the speed of light, it's a long way off. ("And we put a piece of equipment on it," my friend Jeff P. observed in wonderment.) H/T:  Flowing Data  ...

08 April, 2013

Tense video of mission control scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena, California, as they receive word of the Curiosity rover's descent and landing on the surface of Mars, interspersed with a beautiful animated simulation of the landing. [Video link] And here is the first color photo Curiosity transmitted after landing, showing the landscape to the north of the rover: The image, which shows the north wall and rim of Gale Crater, has been tilted to level the horizon. It's blurry because the camera that took it still bears a transparent lens cap that is covered with dust kicked up during landing....

07 August, 2012

In just nine days, NASA will attempt to place its Martian Science Laboratory on Mars. It's an operation so fraught with extreme technological challenges, the space agency calls it seven mintes of terror. By the time radio signals reach Earth and alert scientists that Curiosity Rover's perilous descent has begun, it will actually have been over for seven minutes, and rover will be dead or alive on the surface of the red planet. H/T: Alexis Madrigal...

27 July, 2012

Going to Mars isn't easy, although the mission success rate has improved since the 1960s. In chronological order (counter-clockwise from top-left), missions to the red planet are color-coded by country, with the longest lines representing the most sophisticated missions. (Even old-fashioned bar graphs can be compelling in the hands of a sharp designer.) Hat tip: FlowingData.com via FastCompany.com via WeLoveDatavis. Original source unknown....

26 October, 2009