These images that are beginning to come down now are really good.
I had a play with one of the full resolution views towards Mt. Sharp (http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia1...color-full.jpg) and attached below is the result.
The landing area seems incredibly diverse, and look at all those layers on the mountain itself...!
Has this been posted? Sorry if I yet again repeat or repost something that has already been. Use the keyboard arrow keys to get the 360 degree rotation.
Has this been posted? Sorry if I yet again repeat or repost something that has already been. Use the keyboard arrow keys to get the 360 degree rotation.
It often strikes me during the day the fact that we're on another planet, yet, it doesn't look altogether too dissimilar from our own little patch in the solar system.
Nice 360° pano, very detailed. But – where is the camera mounted?
Hi Steffen,
Curiosity has no less than 17 cameras and this one is mounted on a mast along with several others.
It is interesting to pan down in the image and to look at the top surface of the rover itself.
That gives some perspective of where the camera is mounted and how high up it is.
Note the little pebbles and grit.
Hi Gary,
if you look down and swing the view around you see no mast or any attachment point for the camera. It looks like the view from a detached camera hovering over the rover. I'm sure there is a simple explanation, but the camera mast (or even its shadow) isn't in the picture.
EDIT In fact, it looks like the Mastcam is still in its stowed position.
Thats a great shot, but I agree with Steffen, you cant see any arms coming from the rover.
Could they have used differant cameras and stitched them together. Although the shot does look like its from the same position.
It looks like the panorama was taken by the main mast camera & the probably edited out, just like any other 360 deg panoramas.
If you look at the bottom of the panorama you'll see it corresponds with location of the main cam.
here is a video I made using all of the descent Imager thumbnails. It has a faster farme rate than the JPL version. Id love to see such a video when all of the full res. versions are uplinked.There is so many of them, it may take time for that to happen.
Scott
Hi Gary,
if you look down and swing the view around you see no mast or any attachment point for the camera. It looks like the view from a detached camera hovering over the rover. I'm sure there is a simple explanation, but the camera mast (or even its shadow) isn't in the picture.
EDIT In fact, it looks like the Mastcam is still in its stowed position.
here is a video I made using all of the descent Imager thumbnails. It has a faster farme rate than the JPL version. Id love to see such a video when all of the full res. versions are uplinked.There is so many of them, it may take time for that to happen.
Scott
I couldnt wait for NASA to make a full resolution video of the descent using the full res. raw MARDI images now sent back, so I made my own Here it is at 30 fps
For best results set quality to "original"
I used freeware "photolapse" software to do it. I used Flashget to download as a batch all of the full res. images from the JPL site
Scott
NASA report they have selected their first target area to drive to, some 400m
away to what they describe as a "natural intersection of three types of terrain".
They have nicknamed the target area "Glenelg". So if you live in Adelaide and
see a strange vehicle headed toward the beach, don't be alarmed.
Prior to the drive to Glenelg, the plan is to use the ChemCam laser induced breakdown
spectrometer to zap a rock about 3m away to deduce its elemental
composition.
I was only considering the other day how science fiction has often nurtured the
concept that one day we get visited by extraterrestrials and they zap us all
dead with lasers. Is there not an irony that the first real evidence we may have
of extraterrestrial life might come from a spectroscopic analysis after we
have zapped it into atomic elements with a laser? "Don't run! We come in peace!"
Curiosity takes first short drive
