The link between grid-spot and image is random, but the one between address/code and grid-spot is constant. Or so it looks.

An idea just flashed through my mind (kinda hurts): in the orbit image... maybe we want to look for constellations?

I made some progress on the base-9 puzzle:

Orient the picture so that the word NINE is up, and take the dice to be base-9 digits. Reading down, they come in singles or pairs, which I converted to base-10 numbers.

The rightmost column is: 4-5-3-15-4-5 (D-E-C-O-D-E)
The previous column is: 20-8-9-19 (T-H-I-S)

If you keep going in that order (right to left), the numbers (going from top to bottom) are:
16-25-22-17-21
9-17-10-22-4-3
24-2-24-20-21-3
1-26-1-20-23-16
20-9-13-4-12
24-14-5-17-25-8
13-3-4-13-13-24
5-25-13-19-5-21
9-14-2-2-13-16
11-16-16-2-23
9-26-2-19

This makes the text:
PYVQU
IQJVDC
XBXTUC
AZATWP
TIMDL
XNEQYH
MCDMMX
EYMSEU
INBBMP
KPPBW
IZBS

So this needs to be decoded. The deck of cards makes me think that this is encoded using the Solitaire Algorithm written for the book Cryptonomicon. (Oh - I just realized that the symbol in the bottom left is from the cover of the book!) Anyone want to have a go at it?

IMAGE looks like a Rorschach ink blot of a whale to me.
Or is that just an insite into my demented little world?
Anyone else see it?

On this site http://www.u.arizona.edu/~ssmith4/programs/ you can find a GUI do decipher the phrase. It's called "solitaire.exe". I'm not sure how to use it since I'm not familiar with the solitaire algorithm... to me it looks like we're missing the key to decipher?

Evil_Felix: I see it!

I think this is the initial set up of the deck:

25-20-38-29-23-4-11-J1-47-39-12-22-24-15-21-18-26-13-43-36-8-5-27-42-46-6-52-16-17-40-51-19-14-35-41-2-34-45-48-49-44-J2-10-37-7-28-50-1-3-30-31-32-33-9

If you notice the Queen of Diamonds in the top left has an arrow on it. I used these values for the cards:

Clubs:
A T T F F S S E N T J Q K
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Diamonds:
A T T F F S S E N T J Q K
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Hearts:
A T T F F S S E N T J Q K
27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39
Spades:
A T T F F S S E N T J Q K
40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

I don't have PC access, so I can't use those files. Going through this manually is a huge pain... the process is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitaire_(cipher)

I solved that one... I'll post the answer if you want to know.

Sure, please post, I couldn't figure that one out. Theres no easy way to hide the answer so people who want to get it on their own can, but maybe we can make our own spoiler tags:

Good idea. That's why I didn't post it right away.

I tried running your data through the program Sphaso mentioned. I changed the J1 to 53 and the J2 to 54. I get this:



The words had x's in between them that I removed. Seems like the end of the message got messed up though.

I also tried this site, and I get the same message.

I'm pretty sure that the message is:


I think there is a mistake in the puzzle itself... push together the two 2's in the third column from the left to make 22, or 20 base-10.