ESA Offers First Live Broadcast from Orbit of Alien Planet

For the first time ever, humanity could watch a live broadcast from another planet. It was offered by the European Space Agency on the anniversary of the flight of its Mars Express probe.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has offered the first live broadcast from the orbit of an alien planet. The images were taken by the European Mars Express satellite, which has been orbiting the red planet since 2003, i.e. for 20 years. The video was coming from a distance of more than 300 million kilometers.

According to Mars Express operator Simon Wood, the camera that took the footage is called the “Martian webcam”. “It’s a camera that’s very similar to something you might buy at your local electronics store,” he says.

The camera was added to the satellite so that scientists could use it to watch the separation of the Beagle 2 probe, which subsequently landed on the surface of Mars. However, due to the malfunction, she did not contact the scientists.

Although the images received from the satellite were broadcast live, less than 17 minutes passed between their acquisition and projection on the screens. This was due to the enormous distance of the satellite from the Earth, which the signal had to travel.

Due to the great age of the technology and the distance, the frame rate was also slow. Instead of the usual 24 frames per second, images were coming from Mars at a rate of approximately one frame per 50 seconds.

TN.cz