A Self Photo from Mars - at 41.5M Pixels

OK, this is another Curiosity photo, But,  it is an Absolutely Amazing High Resolution Self Photo taken on Mars.

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/703574main_MSL%20self-portrait%20pia16239%2020121101_full.jpg
also see
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4845

This photo was stitch together from many smaller photos. The Detail is stunning at 5463 x 7595 pixels that is a 41.5M pixel image !!

Go to the link, it may take a while to download, but zoom in and pan around to see the high resolution details !

For Ham Radio QRP, Hardware, and Robotic Geeks - it does not get better than this !

Thanks JPL and NASA !!

Now we need someone to explain all of the devices on the Rover, like:

• What is that waveguide driven vertical antenna on the back left-side of the rover (upper right in the photo)?
• What are thosee funnel shaped cones on the front? Are those small linear actuators used for positioning?
• What is that Large Grey Cross bar on the Top?

And, maybe someone will make a Trimble (Google) Sketchup of the Rover ?

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Litter Photographed on Mars

Sixty five days after landing, "Litter" was photographed on Mars.

The Litter appears to be a plastic tape fragment. Curosity's arm hand camera took the following close-up photo.

Litter found on Mars

The JPL crew is trying to determine the litter's origin. They are assuming it fell off of Curosity, and wondering "how or if " system integrity has been compromise. Read the full story here or see a video (mov) here.

It would be interesting to know if it was dropped here by Curosity, or debris scattered here as part of the Landing 65 days ago.

My questions are:

• Did they bring a Trash Sack to collect their own Litter?
• Do they plan to attempt retrieving the Litter?
• How long do they think plastic will last on Mars?

Remember on Earth, the rule is:
Pack it in - Pack it out!

Ham Radio

I will get back to "Ham Radio Blogging" soon, I have several projects in the works, two PCB's being manufactured, and currently having fun attempting to gennerating PSK31 with the Prop.

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Curiosity's First Major Rock Photos

On Sol0038 Curiosity took the first photo of a major rock along its path. Although, it may be just a layer of hard crusted dirt.

Curiosity's First Major Rock

From this and previous photos, it appears the Curiosity has been climbing up a very slight slope, with a some distance to go to the crest.

On Sol0040 it appears that Curiosity has almost made it to the the crest of the rise and then it will be going down hill for a while.

Near the Crest of the Rise
On the way to Mount Sharp

The slope of the land is not real apparent in the individual 2D images, only in 3D is it obvious.

Disclaimer: Raw Curiosity photos are available from the NASA web site,  Cross-Eyed Images above were constructed by Eldon Brown, with Image-Magick.

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CW JPL Written in Mars Dust

From my perspective (setting on Earth) the most interesting photos take by the Mars Rover Curiosity, so far are the Navigation Camera Photos. These photos are taken by the two Masthead Nav Cameras. The resulting high resolution images can be merge into one 3D Cross-Eye Viewable image. Some of other cameras on Curiosity are monocular, and therefore their photos are not nearly as interesting.

Here are some fake color Cross-Eye Images taken on Sol-21. Click on the image for full size, then try the Cross-Eye 3D Viewing method.

Some of the First Tracks

"JPL" Written as CW-Code In the Sands of Mars

If you look close, you can almost decode the mound of dust as "JPL", which are the CW characters written by holes in the Wheel Treads. The Wheel Treads CW-Code prints were initially in sync. As expected, that didn't last long (up until the first turn as shown by the track circle on the left :-).

I created the Cross-Eye 3D Images via the ImageMagick command:

convert  NRA*.JPG  NLA*.JPG   -splice 10x0 +append -chop 10x0 -resize 1200 -fill '#630' -tint 150 3D.jpg

Here is the destination:

Destination: Mount Sharp

It is fascinating that these images came from Mars; from that distance and at such low power (now that is really QRP! :-).

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Mars 3D via ImageMagick - Cont'd

For fun, here is another Homebrew Mars Cross Eye Photo created with the following ImageMagick command on linux (see previous post). Original photos taken on Sol2 via the Navigation Cameras.

convert  NR*.JPG NL*.JPG -splice 10x0 +append -chop 10x0 -fill 'rgb(255,150,0)' -tint 150 CrossEye3dFakeColorFull.jpg

Sol0002 - Cross Eye 3D Fake Color

I think you can see two blast craters created by two of the four decent rockets. Assuming that they are blast craters, it would be interesting to know the direction the Sky Crane left the area, the blast pattern might suggest to the left or to the right.

The following are my observations, and therefore obviously not authoritative.

What is not obvious in the original photos, and which can only be seen in the 3D view, is a slight depressions (running left and right) beyond the large lumps (about 1/4 down from the top). Also, there appears to be a old yet small crater near the same lumps, and nearer than the depression. In the distance, the ground appears to be much less level, Curiosity's Sky Crane picked a good level landing spot !

A 3D view provides so much more insight !!

Because of the distance between cameras (much more than the normal width between your eyes), very close items is in the foreground are hard to view. When (if) the camera is aimed a little higher (at the horizon), there would not be the very near foreground distractions.

This Cross Eye 3D viewing technique is not for everyone, some people complain that it gives them headaches. I have now trained my eyes to automatically adjust as necessary, and can quickly enjoy the images. It helps if you tilt your head so that the horizon (as it appears in the above image) is horizontal (as it should be).

The Landing Site

Note: All of the raw photos can be obtained from the NASA site:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/

Annotated Image Gallery at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/gallery-indexEvents.html

UPDATE:

Here is a later interesting Image, only in the 3D view is it obvious that the large foreground rock is stacked on top of another.

Stacked Rocks - Lower Right

Or try this (click for larger image):

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My QSL to Land on Mars

The following is my QSL that will be landing on Mars aboard Curiosity, and it will remain there forever (which is a very-very long time :-)

WA0UWH - QSL

I applied for the "Certificate of Participation" on Apr 25, 2011. I have been waiting for this day longer then those that ordered a KX3 :-)

Actually, only my Name and Call (along with 1,246,444 other names) will be carried to Mars inscribed on a microchip carried on the back deck plate of the Rover.

Mission photos and some narrative is provided by The Atlantic.

So, if all goes well on Aug 5, 2012;  look up, . . . and know there will be a QSL waiting for you on Mars !!


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