Big Brother is Watching Over the Red Planet
Written by Ian O'Neill
We have security cameras watching our daily habits, we watch voyeuristic TV shows of social misfits trapped in a house, we use webcams to transmit our musings on Youtube and we are constantly being monitored by hi-res satellite cameras. What can we possibly survey now? Surely every inch of the planet is under someone's watchful eye? This planet maybe. By a stroke of luck, ESA scientists have just realised that a surplus camera on board the Mars Express orbiter could be switched back on and used as an interplanetary webcam. Big Brother is now keeping a watchful eye on the Red Planet too…
Back in 2003, the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) had one task and one task only: keep a watchful eye over the UK's Beagle 2 Mars lander as it separated from Mars Express and began its descent to the planet's atmosphere. This fairly "normal" camera was only intended to verify that Beagle 2 had separated and begun on its correct trajectory. According to the only VMC/Beagle 2 image below, separation went as planned as we see the bright lander disk to the left of the image. The problems started later on for the lander as something happened to the robot on re-entry.
Bye bye Beagle 2 - The sole VMC image of the descending lander (ESA)
So, task complete, the VMC was switched off and forgotten about. After all, who needs a comparatively low-tech, glorified webcam orbiting Mars anyhow?
Hold on, an orbital webcam is actually pretty cool!
It would appear ESA scientists thought the same thing, pointing out that the VMC is "an ordinary camera in an extraordinary location." For three years the VMC had been left dormant, until in 2007 the Mars Express Flight Control Team based at ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany began testing the camera to see if it could be powered up again. The team couldn't be sure if this little camera would even function as it was designed as a single-use instrument and it had been frozen in deep space for years.
The location of the VMC on Mars Express with Beagle 2 attached (ESA)
But determined to make use of this instrument, the ESOC team were successful at bringing the VMC back online. For the last few months, scientists have been fine tuning the cameras optics to make it better at observing orbital features, and now this "ordinary" camera has been taking some "extraordinary" pictures. Geological features, Mars crescents and the Martian dynamic weather have been captured, making this a great little tool to see Mars from orbit.
Now, the VMC is online and taking pictures of Mars for us to see at home. What's more ESA is inviting us to help with processing the raw images to come from the "Mars Webcam."
For more information, see the ESA VMC page.
Filed under: Mars
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August 23rd, 2008 at 9:05 pm
What the hell are you talking about? I don't have any brothers…
The webcam would surely be nifty, however I'm pretty sure too that the feed would be so heavily watched, they might cut down on the quality.
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:24 pm
yes it becam extraordinary camera specialing that moving photo at the link you gived
its the first to be there
August 24th, 2008 at 7:15 am
"Huh"?
August 25th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Web camming mars seems a time waster, but fun.
August 25th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I couldn't even finish reading the whole article.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Yeah this article really sucks, it's a bit misleading.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:45 am
But it's a webcam. Orbiting Mars! I think that's the least sucky thing. I think it's awesome. Oh well, can't please everyone
March 26th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I just found this article today so excuse the lateness of the comment.
Great article and cool concept. I think things like this is what gets the public interested. For instance I have been dieing to find out if the Phoenix Lander's microphone was ever turned on. Sure it's not at all scientific but little "low tech" things like this give the public something more tangible to connect with.
Anyway, great job.