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#420 by BrightLight on 20 Aug, 2012 02:48
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Now that's spectroscopy
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#421 by Helodriver on 20 Aug, 2012 03:23
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Given the large mirror carried by the chemcam, just how much magnification is it capable of giving if used to observe distant targets? Could it be used in this way to produce ultra high resolution composite images similar to a gigapan picture?
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#422 by Danderman on 20 Aug, 2012 05:41
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During the target practice on Sunday. Curiosity fired 30 pulses at a nearby rock over a 10-second window, burning a small hole.
Oh dear, the first shots in a potential interplanetary war!
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#423 by Bogeyman on 20 Aug, 2012 12:24
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On the very top left of this Raw image (sol 12) , somebody found a short white streak in the sky. Could that be a star trail? A shooting star? Or even one of the orbiters? What are the exposure times of the MSL-Cameras anyway?
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#424 by Jim on 20 Aug, 2012 14:29
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Given the large mirror carried by the chemcam, just how much magnification is it capable of giving if used to observe distant targets? Could it be used in this way to produce ultra high resolution composite images similar to a gigapan picture?
No, since the mirror is not in the optic path for visual instruments. -
#425 by Plopper on 20 Aug, 2012 16:17
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Arm unstoved. Is this true!???
Surprise surprise! According to my calender anyway. Thumbnail below:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=NLA_398742207EDR_T0030004NCAM00105M_&s=14
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#426 by Fixer on 20 Aug, 2012 16:23
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Quote
The next scheduled media telecons are:
Tuesday, Aug. 21 and Thursday, Aug. 23, both at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT).
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1314 -
#427 by TheFallen on 20 Aug, 2012 20:39
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Thumbail pics of Curiosity unstowing her robotic arm posted online
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=14
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#428 by glanmor05 on 20 Aug, 2012 20:59
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Arm unstoved. Is this true!???
Surprise surprise! According to my calender anyway. Thumbnail below:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=NLA_398742207EDR_T0030004NCAM00105M_&s=14
Yeah, I thought steering actuators and small drive came first?
Not enough updates (from JPL) for me. Feed the beast! -
#429 by iamlucky13 on 20 Aug, 2012 23:19
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Given the large mirror carried by the chemcam, just how much magnification is it capable of giving if used to observe distant targets? Could it be used in this way to produce ultra high resolution composite images similar to a gigapan picture?
No, since the mirror is not in the optic path for visual instruments.
Chemcam actually does have a CCD recording from that mirror called the Remote Micro-Imager (ChemCam RMI), used for taking context shots of study targets.
It's uses a dichroic (passes some wavelengths, reflects others) tertiary mirror to split the incoming light between the CCD and the spectrometer.
A few details here:
http://msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov/Instruments/ChemCam/QuoteThe Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) is intended as a context imager for the LIBS...It images through the same telescope as the LIBS...The detector is a 1024 x 1024 pixel CCD. The RMI has a field of view of 19 milliradians. Due to optimization of the telescope for LIBS, the RMI resolution is not pixel-limited, and is approximately 100 microradians.
Technical details here:
http://congrex.nl/icso/Papers/TPosters/12_dufour_icso_paper.pdf
If you divide the 19 milliradian field of view (diagonal) by the 100 microradian resolution and do some quick trigonometry, you will get only ~128 lines of horizontal resolution. In other words, the 1024x1024 pixel CCD significantly outresolves the telescope itself, but it was an already flight-proven sensor, and the extra pixels don't really harm the image, other than they show the ultimate limits of 4" telescope with such a narrow field of view (sensitivity for the spectrometers was the primary goal for this telescope, not resolution). In fact, you can see this as the blurriness of the raw images:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/proj/msl/redops/ods/surface/sol/00013/opgs/edr/ccam/CR0_398646468EDR_F0030004CCAM05013M_.JPG
The ultimate answer to the question is yes, you could do ultra-resolution mosaics, with a resolution of about 1 mm at 10 meters (if I did my math right), but it's not the best use of bandwidth. Doing a 360 degree panorama just with the Mastcam takes several GB...on the order of a week's worth of bandwidth, I believe.
So instead what you would do is use the widest angle cameras on the mast - the Navcams - to take your panoramas. From those images, you select areas for the Mastcams to study in more detail. Only the most interesting areas would you likely take further shots of with the ChemCam RMI, and probably in conjunction with using the laser on those spots. -
#430 by Sparky on 21 Aug, 2012 04:46
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On the very top left of this Raw image (sol 12) , somebody found a short white streak in the sky. Could that be a star trail? A shooting star? Or even one of the orbiters? What are the exposure times of the MSL-Cameras anyway?
Perhaps Phobos? -
#431 by douglas100 on 21 Aug, 2012 08:06
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Doubt it's Phobos. I guess the exposure would be less than a second in daylight and Phobos wouldn't hardly move in that time.
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#432 by ugordan on 21 Aug, 2012 08:07
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Cosmic rays reach the surface of Mars all the time.
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#433 by Fixer on 21 Aug, 2012 18:48
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Quote
NASA media teleconference at 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EDT), Tuesday, Aug. 21, to provide a status update on the Curiosity rover's mission to Mars' Gale Crater.
Participants:
Michael Watkins - Curiosity mission manager, JPL
Louise Jandura - Sampling system lead engineer, JPL
Ashwin Vasavada - Curiosity deputy project scientist, JPL
Igor Mitrofanov - Principal investigator of DAN
Javier Gomez-Elvira - Principal investigator of REMS
Slides:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/telecon/index.html
Record will also be available here: http://www.ustream.tv/NASAJPL
Record: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/24867956
Have not listened to it yet, but it seems they have tested 100mm mastcam, unstowed and tested robotic arm, made first long weather and neutron measurements...
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#434 by litton4 on 21 Aug, 2012 19:50
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Just seen on the BBC News ticker, report of "Damage" to some of the weather station sensors........
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19338870 -
#435 by Fixer on 21 Aug, 2012 20:59
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The issue is related to some wind sensors on one of the booms, so wind measurements will be less accurate in cases when wind blows from the direction somewhat obscured by vertical mast (with only one boom available). http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia13646.html Other sensors are not affected, not a major problem but they will try to fix it.
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#436 by Dalhousie on 21 Aug, 2012 21:01
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#437 by iamlucky13 on 21 Aug, 2012 22:09
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Hmm...sounds like something worth taking a shot of with MAHLI. I think the arm has enough dexterity to get a decent pointing in that direction.
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#438 by Fixer on 21 Aug, 2012 23:16
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Media conference on NASA TV at Wednesday 11:30 a.m. pacific time?
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#439 by catdlr on 22 Aug, 2012 01:43
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What It's Like to Land On Mars
Published on Aug 21, 2012 by JPLnews
This video steps viewers through a portion of the choreography needed to land NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. It starts with a computer simulation from NASA's Eyes on the Solar System program and uses actual images from Curiosity's Mars Descent Imager. It ends with a high-resolution color image from Curiosity's Mast Camera.
