Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
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bystander
- Apathetic Retiree
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by bystander » Thu Mar 05, 2020 4:22 pm
Curiosity Snaps Highest-Resolution Panorama Yet
NASA |
JPL-Caltech |
MSL Curiosity | 2020 Mar 04
To go along with the stunning 1.8-billion-pixel image, a new video offers a sweeping view of the Red Planet.
NASA's Curiosity rover has captured its highest-resolution panorama yet of the Martian surface. Composed of more than 1,000 images taken during the 2019 Thanksgiving holiday and carefully assembled over the ensuing months, the composite contains 1.8 billion pixels of Martian landscape. The rover's Mast Camera, or
Mastcam, used its telephoto lens to produce the panorama; meanwhile, it relied on its medium-angle lens to produce a lower-resolution, nearly 650-million-pixel panorama that includes the rover's deck and robotic arm.
Both panoramas showcase "
Glen Torridon," a region on the side of Mount Sharp that Curiosity is exploring. They were taken between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, when the mission team was out for the Thanksgiving holiday. Sitting still with few tasks to do while awaiting the team to return and provide its next commands, the rover had a rare chance to image its surroundings from the same vantage point several days in a row. (Look closer: A
special tool allows viewers to zoom into this panorama.)
It required more than 6 1/2 hours over the four days for Curiosity to capture the individual shots. Mastcam operators programmed the complex task list, which included pointing the rover's mast and making sure the images were in focus. To ensure consistent lighting, they confined imaging to between noon and 2 p.m. local Mars time each day. ...
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
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bystander
- Apathetic Retiree
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- Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
- Location: Oklahoma
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by bystander » Mon Mar 23, 2020 3:50 pm
Curiosity Takes a New Selfie Before Record Climb
NASA |
JPL-Caltech |
MSL Curiosity | 2020 Mar 20
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recently set a record for the steepest terrain it's ever climbed, cresting the "
Greenheugh Pediment," a broad sheet of rock that sits atop a hill. And before doing that, the rover took a selfie, capturing the scene just below Greenheugh.
In front of the rover is a hole it drilled while sampling a bedrock target called "Hutton." The entire selfie is a 360-degree panorama stitched together from 86 images relayed to Earth. The selfie captures the rover about 11 feet (3.4 meters) below the point where it climbed onto the crumbling pediment.
Curiosity finally reached the top of the slope March 6 (the 2,696th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). It took three drives to scale the hill, the second of which
tilted the rover 31 degrees - the most the rover has ever tilted on Mars and just shy of the now-inactive Opportunity rover's
32-degree tilt record, set in 2016. Curiosity took the selfie on Feb. 26, 2020 (Sol 2687). ...
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
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saturno2
- Commander
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by saturno2 » Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:19 am
Very interesting, indeed