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Getting the Picture on Mars
Aired February 06, 2004 - 15:21 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Quickly this is a Mars minute bonus plus. First of all, we'll show you some new pictures which came down from Opportunity and Spirit. This shot comes from Spirit.
There's the tool as it does its little work there. And it's drilling off a little piece of the Adirondack rock. Check it out. That's where it does the little drilling. It allows them to do some scientific probing on that rock. Now, you may wonder, how do all these images get down to Earth? You know, Mars is a long way away, 115 million miles-plus.
Well, when we were out at Pasadena a little while ago, we got a behind-the-scenes look.
Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIC DEJONG, JET PROPULSION LABORATORY: Put the whole picture on first and then we'll zoom in.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Part Web master, part TV producer, part scientist, Eric DeJong is the ultimate image-maker for the stars, not the Hollywood types, the real ones in Pasadena, home of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
DEJONG: We're working a deadline which runs back 24 hours. The most interesting images are often the ones, of course, to people that we just got.
O'BRIEN: It's early morning at JPL's digital image processing lab and DeJong and his team are poring over a fresh batch of images from another world, readying them for viewing in ours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's 7,838 pixels wade.
DEJONG: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two thousand, nine hundred and fifteen tall.
DEJONG: This, I think, is a color postcard, right, Steven (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
O'BRIEN: The postcards have come a long way in 40 years of space travel. These are the first images fed back to Earth from another world. The place was the moon and the spacecraft was Ranger, sent to scout out Apollo landing sites.
ZAREH GORJIAN, DIGITAL IMAGING ENGINEER: It was the first instance of translating analog information through radio signals into a digital signal that one could put in the computer.
O'BRIEN: So, you can put your digital camera beside WD-40 and cordless power tools on the list of cool space spinoffs.
DEJONG: Put a little rectangle on it, the yellow rectangle. And that way, when we come in, they'll know what we have zoomed in to.
O'BRIEN: Spirit and Opportunity images are high-definition, good enough to fill a huge IMAX movie screen. And, unfortunately, you can't fully appreciate it watching this story on plain old TV.
DEJONG: It's a question of what display you have at home. And, admittedly, when you're looking through a camera and only a small portion of the image on your TV screen has the surface of Mars, well, then, you can't see all of it.
O'BRIEN: The images are so large, so detailed, sometimes, only hitting the print key will do. In this case, print with a capital P.
KRIS CAPRARO, DIGITAL IMAGING ENGINEER: There's just no projection system or digital imaging system other than hard copy to really do that. It's still a pretty valid tool.
O'BRIEN (on camera): This is for me to take home, right?
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as you can fit it in your wallet.
(LAUGHTER)
DEJONG: It's pretty exciting to be the first people to see the surface of Mars like this. It's pretty exciting. That doesn't get old. You get a chill. It actually goes through your spine. You get a chill. And it's exciting that you're actually the first person seeing in this way the surface of Mars. It's just incredible.
DEJONG: I think we made enough for the big new one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we've got plenty of room, got plenty of room. How much farther?
DEJONG: OK, you're down about a quarter inch on your side.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): The poster is posted. And now it is time for a quick huddle with the man who designed the camera, Jim Bell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no way you could get that of resolution. It's madness. You can't do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On another planet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One hundred million miles away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's showtime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning and welcome to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
O'BRIEN: Another day, another sight for more eyes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: All righty.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Do you have that picture up in your house now?
O'BRIEN: Yes, I have the full thing. No, they wouldn't let me take that one. That was kind of a special
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: You took your own pictures, though.
O'BRIEN: I did. And I did manage -- you remember I did that 3-D piece and I got some 3-D images.
PHILLIPS: Right.
O'BRIEN: Gave it to Connery (ph) to take to school for the kids with the glasses and everything.
PHILLIPS: That's one of Miles' children.
O'BRIEN: And one of the young, wonderful children in the class spilled milk all over it. So we're calling that the Milky Way now.
PHILLIPS: Oh, very smart. Very cute.
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 February 6, 2004 - 15:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Quickly this is a Mars minute bonus plus. First of all, we'll show you some new pictures which came down from Opportunity and Spirit. This shot comes from Spirit.
There's the tool as it does its little work there. And it's drilling off a little piece of the Adirondack rock. Check it out. That's where it does the little drilling. It allows them to do some scientific probing on that rock. Now, you may wonder, how do all these images get down to Earth? You know, Mars is a long way away, 115 million miles-plus.
Well, when we were out at Pasadena a little while ago, we got a behind-the-scenes look.
Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIC DEJONG, JET PROPULSION LABORATORY: Put the whole picture on first and then we'll zoom in.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Part Web master, part TV producer, part scientist, Eric DeJong is the ultimate image-maker for the stars, not the Hollywood types, the real ones in Pasadena, home of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
DEJONG: We're working a deadline which runs back 24 hours. The most interesting images are often the ones, of course, to people that we just got.
O'BRIEN: It's early morning at JPL's digital image processing lab and DeJong and his team are poring over a fresh batch of images from another world, readying them for viewing in ours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's 7,838 pixels wade.
DEJONG: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two thousand, nine hundred and fifteen tall.
DEJONG: This, I think, is a color postcard, right, Steven (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
O'BRIEN: The postcards have come a long way in 40 years of space travel. These are the first images fed back to Earth from another world. The place was the moon and the spacecraft was Ranger, sent to scout out Apollo landing sites.
ZAREH GORJIAN, DIGITAL IMAGING ENGINEER: It was the first instance of translating analog information through radio signals into a digital signal that one could put in the computer.
O'BRIEN: So, you can put your digital camera beside WD-40 and cordless power tools on the list of cool space spinoffs.
DEJONG: Put a little rectangle on it, the yellow rectangle. And that way, when we come in, they'll know what we have zoomed in to.
O'BRIEN: Spirit and Opportunity images are high-definition, good enough to fill a huge IMAX movie screen. And, unfortunately, you can't fully appreciate it watching this story on plain old TV.
DEJONG: It's a question of what display you have at home. And, admittedly, when you're looking through a camera and only a small portion of the image on your TV screen has the surface of Mars, well, then, you can't see all of it.
O'BRIEN: The images are so large, so detailed, sometimes, only hitting the print key will do. In this case, print with a capital P.
KRIS CAPRARO, DIGITAL IMAGING ENGINEER: There's just no projection system or digital imaging system other than hard copy to really do that. It's still a pretty valid tool.
O'BRIEN (on camera): This is for me to take home, right?
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as you can fit it in your wallet.
(LAUGHTER)
DEJONG: It's pretty exciting to be the first people to see the surface of Mars like this. It's pretty exciting. That doesn't get old. You get a chill. It actually goes through your spine. You get a chill. And it's exciting that you're actually the first person seeing in this way the surface of Mars. It's just incredible.
DEJONG: I think we made enough for the big new one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we've got plenty of room, got plenty of room. How much farther?
DEJONG: OK, you're down about a quarter inch on your side.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): The poster is posted. And now it is time for a quick huddle with the man who designed the camera, Jim Bell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no way you could get that of resolution. It's madness. You can't do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On another planet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One hundred million miles away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's showtime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning and welcome to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
O'BRIEN: Another day, another sight for more eyes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: All righty.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Do you have that picture up in your house now?
O'BRIEN: Yes, I have the full thing. No, they wouldn't let me take that one. That was kind of a special
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: You took your own pictures, though.
O'BRIEN: I did. And I did manage -- you remember I did that 3-D piece and I got some 3-D images.
PHILLIPS: Right.
O'BRIEN: Gave it to Connery (ph) to take to school for the kids with the glasses and everything.
PHILLIPS: That's one of Miles' children.
O'BRIEN: And one of the young, wonderful children in the class spilled milk all over it. So we're calling that the Milky Way now.
PHILLIPS: Oh, very smart. Very cute.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
