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Live From...
Virtual Visit to the Red Planet
Aired January 26, 2004 - 15:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, now is the time to break out those 3-D glasses we've been telling you about for an incredible visit to Mars. The images you're about to see came from the Spirit rover. And guiding us through the tour is our own Miles O'Brien.
Take it away.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: No, they're not watching a 1950s horror movie. This is actually a version of Spirit attacks the Gusev Crater. These 3-D images are a part of what the scientific team here uses to explore Mars. But if you want to explore Mars this way, you have to have some glasses like these.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Our tour guides on this virtual visit to Mars are Matt Golombek and Eric DeYoung (ph). They're two of the leading experts on the planet. And you can tell they're top scientists by their glasses.
Very nice, guys. Very nice.
It's time to put your glasses on now. Make sure the blue filter covers your right eye. Welcome to Mars in 3-D.
Get yourself right in front of your screen. You know, probably fairly close to it. Turn off the lights. Move your head back and forth, but perhaps, most important, at least in your mind, step into the image.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. Step into the image.
MATT GOLOMBEK, NASA: Get yourself on Mars.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: What you dreamed of for a landing site?
GOLOMBEK: Oh, yes. It's perfect. In every regard, it's exactly what we expected from a general characteristics point of view.
We expected a lightly-cratered plane that was relatively flat, that was safe for landing. That certainly worked. And is safe for roving, and that worked, too. And we expected substantially fewer rocks than any of the other landing sites. And, as you can see, this is very, very low rock abundance.
O'BRIEN: When you guys look at these, do you think about being there?
GOLOMBEK: Yes. You know, I mean...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, absolutely.
GOLOMBEK: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like you're a geologist walking on the surface. You know, people love to take geological field trips. This is a way of -- the closest way we have right now of doing the same thing on Mars.
O'BRIEN: This is a Pathfinder image, right? I had forgotten about Pathfinder sites. I've gotten so accustomed to seeing these. It's such a dramatic difference.
GOLOMBEK: This is a signature shot for Pathfinder. This, we're fairly convinced, is a catastrophic flood deposited surface, a plane of material that was deposited by this raging catastrophic flood.
O'BRIEN: I suppose a layman would look at this image and go, well, this is more interesting. Not necessarily so?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Much more rocks.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But also, you know, we have got a rover. We wanted to have a place where we could drive far. And this would definitely be full of hazards and difficult to drive on. And we couldn't visit as large an area.
O'BRIEN: All right. This is way cool. What I like -- it's great perspective. This is as good a 3-D you get, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a fantastic image, because this was the first time we were actually sitting on the surface of Mars, six wheels in the dirt. And this is looking back at the lander that brought us there.
O'BRIEN: This is -- it looks like a work of impressionistic art. I don't know what it is. First of all, give us a sense of the scale, Eric.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is taken by the microscopic imager. And for a sense of scale, a penny would pit in right around here.
GOLOMBEK: We have never, ever seen a surface at this scale before on Mars.
O'BRIEN: This is the most microscopic image ever from another planet?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the highest resolution image of any place other than the Earth. So...
O'BRIEN: OK. This is it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is it.
O'BRIEN: Right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is going to hold in the record books for quite some time.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Well, congratulations, gentlemen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: All right. I'll be honest with you. Watching it here today, you know, it's not the best on TV. So we invite you, in you're interested in all of this, get some of these glasses and go to the Web site. Go to CNN.com/space.
We have a bunch of these red-blue 3-D images. They're called anaglyphs (ph). And you can see it a lot better when you have the resolution of a computer screen.
Carol, did you see it?
LIN: I did. I did.
O'BRIEN: Was it subtle?
LIN: I'm looking at you right now. I feel like you're right here next to me, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, it's tough with all the glare where I am. You look great, by the way.
LIN: Oh, thanks, darling. Keep those glasses on. See you later. Thanks, Miles.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 26, 2004 - 15:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, now is the time to break out those 3-D glasses we've been telling you about for an incredible visit to Mars. The images you're about to see came from the Spirit rover. And guiding us through the tour is our own Miles O'Brien.
Take it away.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: No, they're not watching a 1950s horror movie. This is actually a version of Spirit attacks the Gusev Crater. These 3-D images are a part of what the scientific team here uses to explore Mars. But if you want to explore Mars this way, you have to have some glasses like these.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Our tour guides on this virtual visit to Mars are Matt Golombek and Eric DeYoung (ph). They're two of the leading experts on the planet. And you can tell they're top scientists by their glasses.
Very nice, guys. Very nice.
It's time to put your glasses on now. Make sure the blue filter covers your right eye. Welcome to Mars in 3-D.
Get yourself right in front of your screen. You know, probably fairly close to it. Turn off the lights. Move your head back and forth, but perhaps, most important, at least in your mind, step into the image.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. Step into the image.
MATT GOLOMBEK, NASA: Get yourself on Mars.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: What you dreamed of for a landing site?
GOLOMBEK: Oh, yes. It's perfect. In every regard, it's exactly what we expected from a general characteristics point of view.
We expected a lightly-cratered plane that was relatively flat, that was safe for landing. That certainly worked. And is safe for roving, and that worked, too. And we expected substantially fewer rocks than any of the other landing sites. And, as you can see, this is very, very low rock abundance.
O'BRIEN: When you guys look at these, do you think about being there?
GOLOMBEK: Yes. You know, I mean...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, absolutely.
GOLOMBEK: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like you're a geologist walking on the surface. You know, people love to take geological field trips. This is a way of -- the closest way we have right now of doing the same thing on Mars.
O'BRIEN: This is a Pathfinder image, right? I had forgotten about Pathfinder sites. I've gotten so accustomed to seeing these. It's such a dramatic difference.
GOLOMBEK: This is a signature shot for Pathfinder. This, we're fairly convinced, is a catastrophic flood deposited surface, a plane of material that was deposited by this raging catastrophic flood.
O'BRIEN: I suppose a layman would look at this image and go, well, this is more interesting. Not necessarily so?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Much more rocks.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But also, you know, we have got a rover. We wanted to have a place where we could drive far. And this would definitely be full of hazards and difficult to drive on. And we couldn't visit as large an area.
O'BRIEN: All right. This is way cool. What I like -- it's great perspective. This is as good a 3-D you get, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a fantastic image, because this was the first time we were actually sitting on the surface of Mars, six wheels in the dirt. And this is looking back at the lander that brought us there.
O'BRIEN: This is -- it looks like a work of impressionistic art. I don't know what it is. First of all, give us a sense of the scale, Eric.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is taken by the microscopic imager. And for a sense of scale, a penny would pit in right around here.
GOLOMBEK: We have never, ever seen a surface at this scale before on Mars.
O'BRIEN: This is the most microscopic image ever from another planet?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the highest resolution image of any place other than the Earth. So...
O'BRIEN: OK. This is it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is it.
O'BRIEN: Right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is going to hold in the record books for quite some time.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Well, congratulations, gentlemen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: All right. I'll be honest with you. Watching it here today, you know, it's not the best on TV. So we invite you, in you're interested in all of this, get some of these glasses and go to the Web site. Go to CNN.com/space.
We have a bunch of these red-blue 3-D images. They're called anaglyphs (ph). And you can see it a lot better when you have the resolution of a computer screen.
Carol, did you see it?
LIN: I did. I did.
O'BRIEN: Was it subtle?
LIN: I'm looking at you right now. I feel like you're right here next to me, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, it's tough with all the glare where I am. You look great, by the way.
LIN: Oh, thanks, darling. Keep those glasses on. See you later. Thanks, Miles.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
