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Curiosity Transmits First 360-Degree Panorama From Mars
redletterdave writes with this snippet from the IB Times: "Five days after NASA's Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars, the one-ton robot sent another postcard back to Earth, this one a 360-degree doozy. Curiosity's first panorama, albeit black-and-white, gives Earthlings a great high-quality glimpse at the surface on Mars, specifically within the 96-mile Gale Crater."
That's not a picture of Mars. I've been where this picture was taken... It's in southern Nevada. They're probably embarassed that the lens cap was left on, so they're showing us this instead. :)
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Okay, that link is not only choppy on my 4 core 8gb ram system (I have no idea why), but it's also in black and white.
Here's one that is in color, and much better: http://panoramas.dk/mars/greeley-haven.html.
Here is NASA's version
Free Martian Whores!
Curiosity is a hipster, color photographs are too mainstream.
This rover actually does have color cameras on it. The primary navigation cameras are B&W, but there are two color 2-mpixel cameras used for sending back photos. NASA has some information on that. Not sure why the linked image here is in B&W. Perhaps they sometimes take B&W photos to save bandwidth? The MarsEarth link is 29 kbit, basically '90s modem speed.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I know adding color would increase bandwidth, but I can't imagine that alone is the problem.
Actually, that alone is the problem. It's a 1mbit / 256kbit stream to a satellite in LEO that's only overhead for 18 minutes every day. I guess it's something about the transmitter being a few billion miles away that makes it hard, or something...
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Since these are science missions, the camera isn't equipped with a fixed Bayer pattern filter in front of the sensor. Instead it uses exchangeable filters. You can't make an interchangeable Bayer pattern filter, so they have to take three pictures to capture the red, green and blue channels separately. In addition to "sciency" filters, Curiosity also has filters for "human perception" color photography, whereas the spectra that were combined into color pictures from earlier missions did not match human perception because they were optimized just for the science. Curiosity should give us a first glimpse of what Mars would like like to human eyes (although it appears that they were not that far off before, see here.
Here is the Raw Archive of Engineering Camera's and improved EDL sequence with Yaketty Sax for soundtrack ;)
DSL? I told them they should have gone with a cable modem.... Oh, well. I guess we should be thankful that it isn't 6.0/128k.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I am not an astrophysicist, but this is my understanding. The cameras are not like normal digital cameras. Regular digital cameras use 4 sensors per pixel (with different color filters) to take color pictures. This causes artifacts in the image because the different colors in a pixel are actually measuring different parts of the image, so some demosaicing algorithms are used to remove the artifacts. Additionally, the spectral bandwidth of the color filters (how much of what wavelengths they let through) in the camera is fixed (and generally set to approximate the human eye response -- color is not an objective measurement and is generally defined based on measurements of how people perceive different wavelengths of light).
Cameras used for scientific work are less concerned with making things look like the human eye would perceive them and more concerned with obtaining accurate and well-controlled images. Such cameras generally consist of an array of unfiltered sensors with an external, exchangeable, color filter. These color filters may vary from wide-bandwidth filters (for grayscale), to extremely narrow-band filters that only pass wavelengths within a few nanometers of the center frequency (useful for verifying structure or composition of objects).
Look for some pseudo-color images later. They just need to take the same picture 3 or more times with the appropriate sets of filters and then combine them into an image that approximates what someone would see.
The minimum distance to Mars is ~55 million km and the maximum distance to Mars is ~400 million km.
Fugue for Aaron Swartz
Nasa's web site is the first place I look. There's a treasure trove of beautiful high resolution photos, movies, data. The photo you're looking for is there. I linked the panoramic shot in a comment farther down.
Free Martian Whores!
They have already downloaded a number of color photos you can find online, including a color panorama. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/
This would usually be the case, however the Curiosity does, in fact, carry several true color-capable cameras.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
I always wonder about these pictures, and I hate to sound like an idiot, but why don't they ever seem to take color photos on these things?
Simple: Because they're designed for doing science, not taking holiday snapshots. Black/white cameras can have filters put in front of them, this way they can analyze different parts of the spectrum. They can even take color pictures by combining three exposures made with RGB filters.
No sig today...
it doesn't help poor people, it creates skilled labor jobs.
also: this >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA#Public_perception
We spent 804 billion dollars in Iraq and didn't even get a "thank you card"
True, but we did receive some nice complimentary footwear.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Correction: The older rovers had to take three pictures for a color picture and lacked the human perception filters. Curiosity has color cameras: the Mastcams on the same mast as the black-and-white navigation cameras, a downward pointing camera for taking pictures of the descent, and a camera on the instrument arm. The Mastcams have filter wheels with narrowband and neutral density filters that can be added on top of the fixed Bayer pattern filter.
I always wonder about these pictures, and I hate to sound like an idiot, but why don't they ever seem to take color photos on these things? Is there not enough light, and they have to use infrared?
They are still transmitting on the Low Gain/Low Speed antenna, plus they are still running the Flight software and have not replaced it with the software that's intended for Surface operations. As soon as the High Gain/High Speed antenna is deployed and the software for surface operations is loaded, they have a few color panoramas and a high resolution Landing Movie they will be sending down. After all that happens, the rover activities on Mars will increase as well as the amount of science that will be beamed back.
And a note about the cameras. The cameras that can take color pictures are not like your home snapshot camera. They have a color wheel behind the lens with 15 or more colors in it. to take a color picture the camera snaps 3 or 4 different pictures using different filters that make up the colors of visible light, then the 3 or 4 pics are sent to earth and combined to make the final shot. this requires more bandwidth that is not available till the high gain antenna is used.
We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
Shouldn't that be LMO instead of LEO?
Skip the military comparisons. At least some science and improvements come from that area. Instead compare the costs of the superPACs and other assorted political spending.
Personally think there's more value in the 2.6Billion or so rover than the 4B+ spent baby-slinging and shit-kissing
It's because of how cameras work.
The CCD sensors that make up each pixel can't sense color, they only sense light intensity. Putting a filter in front of them lets one get light of a single color. In a consumer camera every CCD is filtered by a red, green, or blue filter. In a scientific camera the full resolution is desired, instead of 1/3 resolution, so they use swappable filters and take 3 images; one red, one green, and one blue. These are then composed into a single color image. They can also use different filters (IR, UV, etc) depending on what data they want to capture (and the sensitivity range of the CCD in the camera). When color data isn't needed, full-spectrum luminance info is desired, or just to save bandwidth, they take unfiltered pictures.
Not a sentence!
Its funny the links people actually choose to share .... random business media is a funny source when one could just go straight to the JPL MSL page. The picture in the stories linked article is from the black and white NAVCAM. We just released the full color Mastcam partial mosaic today:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4421
Note the link on that page to the FULL resolution image.
-A
that would create more jobs than nasa/commie liberal government every has. ryan was a great choice for vp. this crap commie government can only be fixed by putting a randist in charge. nasa/welfare/social slush funds that are nothing more than personal unlimited checking accounts for barack HUSSEIIN obama. more money to the job creators not slush funds like nasa.
Romney/Ryan 2012!!!!!!!!
less liberal FRAUD; more jobs!!!
You get paid to do this, don't you? Why don't you go back to turning tricks -- it's more honest work.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr