August 25, 2008

Webcam from Mars

Webcams have been around for as long as the first basic internet took to the air; can anyone remember the coffee pot cam? However, webcams have become so tiny and yet so powerful that they are popping in some very unusual places and some places that you would expect too, like city centres.

Nevertheless, if you want the find the webcam that is furthest away from you location, then you need to look out of this world and onto another, for there is a working webcam located on the European Space Agency’s Mar Express Orbiter, this is the craft that monitored the failed Beagle Lander expedition.

The craft has been orbiting Mars since 2003, engineers thought is may be interesting project to see if the cameras would come back on and be turned to face the red planet. To their amazement, the camera system worked and is now transmitting data back to earth. The images can be seen on the ESA website.

Source [Discover Magazine]