Planet Surface Photos?

Pyro Pilots Lounge. For all topics *not* covered in other DBB forums.

Moderators: fliptw, roid

Post Reply
User avatar
Dakatsu
DBB Admiral
DBB Admiral
Posts: 1575
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:22 am
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida

Planet Surface Photos?

Post by Dakatsu »

I was wondering if anyone knew a place to get actual photos of a planet's surface, preferably color photos. It's easy to get Mars and the Moon, but other planets are not nearly as cooperative...

Specifically, I'd like to see these planets/moons:
Callisto
Europa
Venus
Mercury
Triton
Charon

If anyone has any data on that, I'd love to see it (although I know some of these for sure have had no surface photos taken).
User avatar
Isaac
DBB Artist
DBB Artist
Posts: 7652
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:47 am
Location: 🍕

Post by Isaac »

User avatar
Dakatsu
DBB Admiral
DBB Admiral
Posts: 1575
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:22 am
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida

Re:

Post by Dakatsu »

Thanks for the thought, but I've already seen that site :)

I meant something like this, an actual surface shot from the ground, or something close to reliable...
Image
User avatar
Sirius
DBB Master
DBB Master
Posts: 5616
Joined: Fri May 28, 1999 2:01 am
Location: Bellevue, WA
Contact:

Post by Sirius »

Nothing has ever landed on Callisto, Europa, Triton or Charon. We don't even have any detailed images of Charon (or Pluto for that matter) because the closest probes we sent (Voyager 1/2) were still many millions of miles away - much too far to see anything. When the New Horizons probe gets there in about 5 years or so that will change, but I don't recall a landing being planned.

There was at least one probe that landed on Venus, but I don't know whether it got any decent photos (I recall some story about the lens cap melting onto the camera because of how acidic, and hot, the atmosphere was). Mercury, I'm not sure whether there's been a landing or just orbital stuff. Nevertheless I don't recall any particularly recent visits to either, hence why it might be difficult to track them down.

I do get the feeling from what you say that I'm just telling you things you already know, though.
User avatar
dissent
DBB Fleet Admiral
DBB Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2159
Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:17 pm
Location: Illinois

Post by dissent »

User avatar
Topher
DBB Alumni
DBB Alumni
Posts: 3545
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 1998 12:01 pm
Location: New York
Contact:

Post by Topher »

There are the original and enhanced versions of the Venus surface here:
http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm

And here are some from the Titan (not Triton) surface lander:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/titan_images.html

The rest have never had a lander.
User avatar
Tunnelcat
DBB Grand Master
DBB Grand Master
Posts: 13309
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2007 12:32 pm
Location: Pacific Northwest, U.S.A.

Post by Tunnelcat »

User avatar
Dakatsu
DBB Admiral
DBB Admiral
Posts: 1575
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:22 am
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida

Post by Dakatsu »

Thanks everyone for your replies. Then I will go for a secondary option: how would these environments look?

Example: this image was constructed from radar data from Venus:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... p39146.png

Would you call this reliable, or would the coloring be pretty far off from this?

Also, would taking pictures from far up be reliable for some planets? For instance, would the surface of callisto contain these colors:
http://www.cosmiclight.com/imagegalleri ... asgard.jpg

Venus I know is covered with clouds, but Callisto would just have stars and Jupiter in the background, right?

Also, Europa looks like this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... a-moon.jpg

But artist mockups often have Europa covered with ice. Also, with two different mockups, one has Europa with just stars and Jupiter in it's sky, but another has a blue sky due to the atmosphere. Which one would be a better interpretation?
http://www.hobbyspace.com/AAdmin/Images ... b22_sm.jpg
http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/images/Europa_Surface.jpg

In case your wondering, I'm creating a mod, and these planets are the main settings...
Post Reply