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Watch Mars Footage in 4K Resolution – A First

This footage of the surface of Mars was mostly captured by three of NASA's rovers: Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity. ElderFox Documentaries  stitched together high-resolution photos from the rover cameras to create this ultra HD, 4K visual. As explained in the video, sending HD video footage back to Earth would take a very long time; Curiosity can only send data directly back to Earth at 32 kilobits per second.

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    Transcript

    00:00:02 The images in this video are all real, captured by NASA's mars rovers. Directly from the surface of the planet. This is the first time martian footage has been rendered in stunning 4k resolution. So sit back, relax and enjoy this journey across the surface of another world. This is an ultra high definition video (4K) Computers were harmed during the making of this video The team at NASA have given Mars informal place names, which you will see on the screen in the bottom left corner. The footage was mainly captured by the three most successful rovers: Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. The cameras on board the rovers were the height of technology when the respective missions were launched.

    00:01:22 A question often asked is: Why don't we actually have live video from mars? Although the cameras are high quality, the rate at which the rovers can send data back to earth is the biggest challenge. Curiosity can only send data directly back to earth at 32 kilobits per second Instead when the rover can connect to the Mars reconnaissance orbiter, we get more favourable speeds of 2 megabits per second. However, this link is only available for about 8 minutes each 'Sol', or Martian day As you would expect, sending HD video at these speeds would take a long time As nothing really moves on mars. It makes more sense to take and send back the images In order to create a video like this, several images must first be stitched together to create a mosaic or panorama Depending on how many images are connected you may sometimes see black areas where no image was taken We have done our best to preserve the 4k quality by not zooming in, while also trying not to include those areas

    00:03:12 But you may see them from time to time By taking these mosaics and panning across them at 60 frames per second We have created the most lifelike experience of being on mars This image is the largest mosaic ever put together and was made from over 1000 images taken by curiosity between November 24th and December 1st 2019. It contains 1.8 billion pixels As we zoom in, the quality does not diminish. At this zoom level what you are seeing is exactly 4k quality. The rover was exploring the area named 'Glen Torridon' Which was theorized to contain large amounts of clay

    00:04:55 Clay found on mars signals the presence of water in the past. At this point in 2020 the NASA rovers have found irrefutable evidence that Mars was once a watery planet You may be wondering why the sky color varies from image to image The true color of mars is reddish and hazy. In some images however, the sky will appear blue and bright like on earth. This is due to the recoloring of images done by NASA in order to aid geologists identifying rock formations. This technique also produces a much clearer picture so we can see Mars in much greater detail. Curiosity is the only rover still active on Mars. The previous two rovers: 'Spirit' and 'Opportunity' unfortunately succumbed to the Martian environment. They were launched around the same time, landing on opposite sides of the planet. Twin rovers,

    00:07:03 they are considered one of NASA's most successful missions. Spirit became trapped in a sand dune and lost the ability to charge its solar panels after six years of service. Opportunity outlived Spirit, roaming mars for 14 years and making astounding discoveries. Opportunity was lost in 2019 after experiencing a massive dust storm and essentially freezing to death. NASA's newest rover 'Perseverance' is scheduled to land in 2021. It will deploy a small helicopter called 'Ingenuity'. Ingenuity will scout the path ahead, warning the team at NASA about any sand traps awaiting the rover. Flying on mars is no easy feat. With an atmosphere much thinner than Earth's, it's blades will reach up to

    00:08:44 2400 revolutions per minute. That's 40 spins every second. Most helicopters on Earth operate at just 500 revolutions per minute which is just over 8 spins per second. This video was an exhibit of the high quality images available of the Martian surface, which many people are unaware of. Click here to see the full journey of Curiosity and the things it actually discovered on Mars or go and check out our other videos Thanks for watching ElderFox. You