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Mars Base

Video Transcript: Curiosity's Cameras - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - 0 views

www.jpl.nasa.gov/...video-transcript.php

scibyte98 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • received a lot of questions about the cameras on the rovers and we're here to answer some of those questions
  • The Curiosity rover actually has 17 cameras on it, which is the most of any NASA planetary mission ever.
  • took pictures as the rover was landing on Mars
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • MARDI, or the Mars Descent Imager,
  • is the camera mounted on the end of the arm, and that takes close-up, high-resolution color photos
  • MAHLI
  • hazard avoidance cameras, or the HazCams. There are four of these in the front and four in the back, and they're used to take pictures of the terrain near the wheels and nearby the rover
  • Mast Cameras, which are color imagers, which are used to do geology investigations
  • Navigation Cameras, which take pictures that are used to drive the rover
  • the remote microscopic imager, which is part of the ChemCam laser instrument. And that's used to document the laser spots, that the rover makes on the surface
  • Many of the black and white images that come back from the rover are
  • black and white, or gray scale as we call it, is because that's all the rover really needs in order to detect rocks and other obstacles
  • Other cameras are color, such as the Mastcam imager, and the reason that they're color is because the scientists use the color information to learn about the soil and the rocks
  • There are 1-megapixel black and white imagers for the engineering cameras and 2-megapixel color imagers for the science cameras
  • In addition to the video that we took when the rover descending on to the surface, we've taken movies of the soil being shaken in the scoop.
  • files are pretty large and because we have a limited downlink each day, the scientists prefer to take still images of new targets
Mars Base

Engineers build 50 gigapixel camera - 0 views

phys.org/...2012-06-gigapixel-camera.html

scibyte52 camera

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • resolution is five times better than 20/20 human vision over a 120 degree horizontal field.
  • capture up to 50 gigapixels of data, which is 50,000 megapixels
  • most consumer cameras
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • ranging from 8 to 40 megapixels
  • researchers believe that within five years
  • gigapixel cameras should be available to the general public
  • Traditionally, one way of making better optics has been to add more glass elements, which increases complexity
  • camera was developed by
  • Duke's Pratt School of Engineering
  • University of Arizona
  • University of California
  • Distant Focus Corp
  • The camera is so large now because of the electronic control boards and the need to add components to keep it from overheating
  • prototype camera itself is two-and-half feet square and 20 inches dee
  • only about three percent of the camera is made of the optical elements
  • arrange for some overlap
Mars Base

Curiosity's Robotic Arm Camera Snaps 1st Night Images - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-camera-snaps-1st-night-images

scibyte79 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 25 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • This image of a Martian rock illuminated by white-light LEDs (light emitting diodes) is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity
  • image was taken on Jan. 22, 2013, after dark on Sol 165. It covers an area about 1.3 inches by 1 inch (3.4 by 2.5 centimeters
  • The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera is located on the tool turret at the end of Curiosity’s 7 foot (2.1 m) long robotic arm
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Curiosity’s high resolution robotic arm camera has just snapped the 1st set of night time images of a Martian rock of the now 5 1/2 month long mission – using illumination from ultraviolet and white light emitting LED’s.
  • the close-up images of a rock target named “Sayunei” on Jan. 22 (Sol 165), located near the front-left wheel after the rover had driven over and scuffed the area to break up rocks in an effort to try and expose fresh material, free of obscuring dust
  • image of a Martian rock illuminated by ultraviolet LEDs
  • is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by the MAHLI camera on the robotic arm.
  • It covers an area about 1.3 inches by 1 inch (3.4 by 2.5 centimeters).
  • The purpose of acquiring observations under ultraviolet illumination was to look for fluorescent minerals
  • If something looked green, yellow, orange or red under the ultraviolet illumination, that’d be a more clear-cut indicator of fluorescence
Mars Base

ESTCube-1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/ESTCube-1

scibyte86 ESTCube

shared by Mars Base on 13 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • scheduled to be launched to orbit in second half of 2013
  • Student Satellite is an educational project that university and high school students can participate in
  • The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10x10x11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg.
  • ...44 more annotations...
  • According to the CubeSat standard there are three different sized CubeSats corresponding to size 1U, 2U and 3U. Base side lengths are the same but height is 2 to 3 times bigger than 1U CubeSats
  • Mass is also set in CubeSat standard, the highest possible mass for 1U CubeSat is 1300 grams, 2U CubeSat 2600 grams and 3U CubeSat 4000 grams
  • CubeSat base side length must be 100.0±0.1 millimeters and satellite height must be 113.5±0.1 mm
  • the Estonian satellite
  • a 1U CubeSat
  • Although
  • its main purpose was to educate students, the satellite does have a scientific purpose.
  • On board of the satellite is an electric solar wind sail (e-sail) which was created by a Finnish scientist Pekka Janhunen
  • it is the first real experimentation of the e-sail
  • 10 meters of e-sail 50 to 20 micrometers thick wire of high-technology structure so-called Heytether will be deployed from the satellite.
  • The deployment of the Heytether can be detected by decrease of the satellite's speed of rotation or by a on-board camera
  • To control the loaded solar wind sail elements interaction with the plasma surrounding the earth and the effect it has on the spacecraft spinning speed the spacecraft has two on-board nanotechnologic electron emitters/gun
  • The electron emitters are connected to the e-sail element and by shooting out electrons it loads the e-sail element positively to 500 volts
  • The positive ions in the plasma push the e-sail element and have an influence on the satellites rotation speed
  • The effect of the e-sail is measured by the change in rotation speed
  • The camera is used to take a picture of Earth and the successfully deployed Heytether. [edit]
  • ESTCube-1 will be sent to orbit by the European Space Agency's rocket Vega in spring of 2013
  • Start in spring of 2013
  • Half an hour after the satellites deployment from the start capsule satellites antennas will be opened and radio transmitter and important subsystems will be switched on
  • First days or weeks will be used to test the satellite and set it to work on full capacity.
  • Orienting the satellite so the on-board camera will be faced to earth
  • trying to take a picture of Estonia
  • Rotating the satellite on an axis with a speed of 1 revolution per second
  • E-sail element deployment from the satellite by a centrifugal force and confirming the deployment via the on-board camera
  • Activating the electron emitter and loading the e-sail
  • Measuring the e-sails and Lorentz force by satellites revolutions per second
  • If possible using the negatively charged e-sail to take the satellite off orbit and burn it in the earths atmosphere
  • If everything goes perfect the mission can be completed within a few weeks to a month
  • Lifespan of the satellite
  • Measurements and weight
  • Scientific purpose
  • Communicating with the satellite
  • held by two International Amateur Radio Unions three registered frequencies
  • Periodic but very slow communication is done on a telegraphic signal on a frequency of 437.250 MHz
  • the most important satellite parameters are transmitted every 3 to 5 minutes
  • For fast connections FSK-modulation radio signal on a frequency of 437.505 MHz with a 9600 baud connection speed and AX.25 standard is used.
  • Somewhat slow connection speed is caused by the usage of amateur radio frequencies which allow a maximum of 25 kiloherz bandwidth
  • Fast connection is used only when the satellite has been given a specific
  • Using the GFSK-modulation maximum possible connection speed is 19,200 bits per second
  • Software
  • FreeRTOS on the satellite's Command and Data Handling System and camera module
  • TinyOS on the satellite's communication module
  • Financing and costs
  • Cheapest possibility to send a satellite onto orbit is offered by European Space Agency. Because Estonia is an associated member of ESA most of the launch expenses (about 70,000 euros) will be covered from Estonian member fee for educational expenses. With the launch total expenses for the project are approximately 100,000 euros.
Mars Base

This Sound Camera Could Help You Fix Your Car | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...camera-makes-heatmap-out-sound

scibyte94 car

shared by Mars Base on 10 May 13 - No Cached
  • Developed by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the camera creates a heatmap-like view of machinery (or anything else
  • 30 digital microphones and a high-res camera pick up on what's making noise, and an image shows the different levels of noise, organized by a color gradient
  • Blue means a little noise, while red is the most extreme level.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • not the first sound camera, but at about 4 pounds, it's one of the most portable
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Billion-Pixel View of Mars Comes From Curiosity Rover - 1 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte99 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 22 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • The first NASA-produced view from the surface of Mars larger than one billion pixels stitches together nearly 900 exposures taken by cameras onboard Curiosity and shows details of the landscape along the rover's route
  • using 850 frames from the telephoto camera of Curiosity's Mast Camera instrument, supplemented with 21 frames from the Mastcam's wider-angle camera and 25 black-and-white frames -- mostly of the rover itself -- from the Navigation Camera
  • The images were taken on several different Mars days between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The new mosaic from NASA shows illumination effects from variations in the time of day for pieces of the mosaic. It also shows variations in the clarity of the atmosphere due to variable dustiness during the month while the images were acquired
Mars Base

areo.info: PanCam true color images from Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers - 1 views

areo.info/mer

scibyte58 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 09 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Every Martian day (Sol) new raw images are downloaded
  • raw images are black & white images, each taken through a colored glass (filter) by the Panoramic Camera on the Rover
  • using 3 filters, each one only letting pass red, green and blue light, a true color image can be created
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • in principle the same as every common photo or video camera creates color images
  • Rover Panoramic Camera differs from normal digital cameras by having filters with smaller bandwidth resulting in images with appear as having too much color saturation. To counteract this effect a special but simple processing
  • combining the black & white images from two filters a visual effect is created as the image would have been taken through one filter with wider bandwidth
  • is a good approximation to
  • Rover Panoramic Camera contains more than only red, green and blue filters there are more combinations available to create color images
  • images created with these additional filters (L2, L3 and L7) show slightly different colorizations as L2 and L3 pass only light of near infrared wavelengths and L7 pass only violet light
  • MER2RGB-process described above the overall colors approximate true colors sufficiently. That means, the soil looks still "Earth-like" and the sky is still blue to white.
  • How precise the true colors are reproduced
  • a 100% precise reproduction is not possible as the human visual system can only be approximated by technical devices
  • some scientist claim, that it is impossible to recreate the Martian colors
  • on Mars the same Sun is shining as on Earth with just reduced intensity by 40% and the same optical and physical laws are valid
  • Color is not always 100% correct, but the general colorization is represented so we can get the impression how it would look like on that location when viewing it with our own eyes
  • controversy about
  • colorization since the first color image was taken by the Viking Lander in 1976
  • color calibration problem seems to be unsolvable
  • from Spirit and Opportuniy Mars Exploration Rover
Mars Base

ScienceShot: Get Ready for Gigapixels - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...ceshot-get-ready-for-giga.html

scibyte52 camera

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Researchers have developed a prototype "supercamera" that stitches together images from 98 individual cameras
  • to create a 960-million-pixel image with enough resolution to spot a 3.8-centimeter-wide object 1 kilometer away
  • Applied to a 120°-wide, near-fisheye view of the Seattle skyline
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • the 93-kilogram camera (inset, upper left) captured enough detail to read the fine print on signs as much as two blocks away
  • camera's optics occupy only 3% of the volume of its 75-centimeter-by-75-centimeter-by-50- centimeter frame
  • needed both to contain the camera's circuit boards and to keep them from overheating
  • other camera systems can generate gigapixel-and-larger images, those composite views are stitched together from individual images taken sequentially with one camera as it is panned across the scene
  • new system takes all 98 images simultaneously, providing a "stop action" view of a scene
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Images - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...images

scibyte86 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 17 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • This mosaic of images from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows Mount Sharp in raw color as recorded by the camera.
  • Raw color shows the scene's colors as they would look in a typical smart-phone camera photo, before any adjustment.
  • This mosaic was assembled from dozens of images from the 100-millimeter-focal-length telephoto lens camera mounted on the right side of the Mastcam instrument
Mars Base

Smart headlights let drivers see between the raindrops - 0 views

phys.org/...dlights-drivers-raindrops.html

scibyte53 headlight

shared by Mars Base on 05 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • During low-light conditions, drivers rely mainly on headlights to see the road but the same headlights reduce visibility when light is reflected off of precipitation back to the driver
  • Carnegie Mellon professor and his team
  • Computer science professor Srinivasa Narasimhan
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • stream light in between the drops
  • answer consists of a co-located imaging and illumination system-- camera, projector, and beamsplitter
  • integrate an imager and processing unit with a light source
  • camera images the precipitation at the top of the field of view
  • processor can tell where the drops are headed and sends a signal to the headlights
  • make their adjustments and react to dis-illuminate the particles
  • entire action, starting from capture to reaction, takes about 13 ms.
  • system runs at 120 Hz. The camera uses a 5 ms exposure time and the system has a total latency of 13 ms
  • how fast will the system need to be, to be actually effective, in a car
  • simulations show that a system operating near 1,000 Hz, with a total system latency of 1.5 ms, and exposure time of 1 ms can achieve 96.8% accuracy
  • 90% light throughput during a heavy rainstorm [25 mm/hr] on a vehicle traveling 30 km/hr
  • 400 Hz with less accuracy will be a significant [>= 70%] improvement for the driver
  • operating range is about 13 feet in front of the headlights
  • recent computer vision methods that digitally remove rain and snow streaks from captured images
  • simulation results show that it is possible to maintain light throughput well above 90 percent for various precipitation types and
  • prototype system operating at 120Hz on laboratory-generated rain, which validated their earlier simulations
  • prototype consists of a camera with gigabit ethernet interface (Point Grey, Flea3), DLP projector (Viewsonic, PJD62531), and desktop computer with Intel architecture (Intel i7 quad core processor).
  • next steps will involve making the system faster and more compact to test on a moving platform
  • research for those ends may take three to four more years and “commercializing it as a product will take additional years.”
  • the prototype was built with off-the-shelf components
  • data transfer speed is slower than if the components were more closely integrated
  • more sophisticated algorithms are needed to maximize system speed and account for factors such as vehicle motion and wind turbulence
Chris Fisher

Trillion FPS Camera Captures Advancing Light Waves - 0 views

www.wired.com/...captures-advancing-light-waves

scibyte light wired waves camera fps

shared by Chris Fisher on 13 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • MIT’s new camera will shoot one trillion frames per second.
  • One trillion seconds is over 31,688 years
  • played it back at 30fps, it’d still take you over 1,000 years to watch it.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • use “femtosecond laser illumination, picosecond-accurate detectors and mathematical reconstruction techniques” to illuminate a scene and then capture the pulses of laser light.
  • The movies are 480 frames long, and show a slice in time of just 1.71 picoseconds.
  • The result is a movie of an advancing wave of light.
Mars Base

10 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do | NASA, Mars Science Laboratory & Curio... - 0 views

www.space.com/s-rover-curiosity-science.html

scibyte22 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 20 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Mast Camera (MastCam)
  • capture high-resolution color pictures and video of the Martian landscape, which scientists will study and laypeople will gawk at
  • Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)
  • ...43 more annotations...
  • will function much like a high-powered magnifying glass
  • instrument will take color pictures of features as tiny as 12.5 microns — smaller than the width of a human hair
  • MAHLI sits on the end of Curiosity's five-jointed, 7-foot (2.1-meter) robotic arm
  • Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
  • small camera located on Curiosity's main body, will record video of the rover's descent to the Martian surface
  • will click on a mile or two above the ground, as soon as Curiosity jettisons its heat shield. The instrument will then take video at five frames per second until the rover touches down. The footage will help the MSL team plan Curiosity's Red Planet rovings, and it should also provide information about the geological context of the landing site, the 100-mile-wide
  • Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)
  • makes up about half of the rover's science payload.
  • a suite of three separate instruments — a mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph and a laser spectrometer
  • will search for carbon-containing compounds, the building blocks of life as we know it
  • look for other elements associated with life on Earth, such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen
  • The rover's robotic arm will drop samples into SAM via an inlet on the rover's exterior
  • Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin)
  • CheMin will identify different types of minerals on Mars and quantify their abundance
  • will help scientists better understand past environmental conditions on the Red Planet
  • CheMin has an inlet on Curiosity's exterior to accept samples delivered by the rover's robotic arm
  • will shine a fine X-ray beam through the sample, identifying minerals' crystalline structures based on how the X-rays diffract
  • Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam)
  • This instrument will fire a laser at Martian rocks from up to 30 feet (9 meters) away and analyze the composition of the vaporized bits
  • help the mission team determine from afar whether or not they want to send the rover over to investigate a particular landform
  • The laser sits on Curiosity's mast, along with a camera and a small telescope
  • Three spectrographs sit in the rover's body, connected to the mast components by fiber optics
  • spectrographs will analyze the light emitted by excited electrons in the vaporized rock samples
  • Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)
  • sits at the end of Curiosity's arm, will measure the abundances of various chemical elements in Martian rocks and dirt
  • APXS will shoot out X-rays and helium nuclei. This barrage will knock electrons in the sample out of their orbits, causing a release of X-rays. Scientists will be able to identify elements based on the characteristic energies of these emitted X-rays
  • Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN)
  • located near the back of Curiosity's main body, will help the rover search for ice and water-logged minerals beneath the Martian surface
  • The instrument will fire beams of neutrons at the ground, then note the speed at which these particles travel when they bounce back. Hydrogen atoms tend to slow neutrons down, so an abundance of sluggish neutrons would signal underground water or ice
  • should be able to map out water concentrations as low as 0.1 percent at depths up to 6 feet (2 m).
  • Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)
  • instrument will measure and identify high-energy radiation of all types on the Red Planet, from fast-moving protons to gamma rays
  • designed specifically to help prepare for future human exploration of Mars
  • will allow scientists to determine just how much radiation an astronaut would be exposed to on Mars
  • Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)
  • partway up Curiosity's mast, is a Martian weather station
  • measure atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, air temperature, ground temperature and ultraviolet radiation.
  • integrated into daily and seasonal reports
  • MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI)
  • MEDLI isn't one of Curiosity's 10 instruments
  • will measure the temperatures and pressures the heat shield experiences as the MSL spacecraft streaks through the Martian sky
  • will tell engineers how well the heat shield, and their models of the spacecraft's trajectory, performed
  • data to improve designs for future Mars-bound spacecraft
Mars Base

Driverless Taxis in European Cities from 2014 - 0 views

www.scienceworldreport.com/...-european-cities-from-2014.htm

scibyte117

shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Driverless taxis will be carrying passengers during demonstration projects in five European cities as of February 2014.
  • cybercars, by the EU-funded CityMobil2 project, is one of a number of research initiatives that are testing out specially designed self-driving road vehicles as the technology required to navigate them becomes cheaper and more reliable.
  • Cybercars have traditionally sensed the world through expensive gyroscopes, microwaves and laser beams
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • cheap cameras and fast image-recognition algorithms has led to a new technique known as visual odometry
  • a computer analyses images to determine the position and orientation of the vehicle.
  • researchers have better access to the technology required for automated vehicles
  • e V-Charge project, a consortium of companies and universities which is working on fully automated low-speed driving in cities using only cameras and other low-cost sensors mounted on standard cars
  • . The consortium is working to produce detailed maps and a perception system that allows a vehicle to recognize its location and identify nearby pedestrians and vehicles, all using only stereoscopic or fisheye cameras.
  • team has taken this a step further, pioneering a guidance system that works economically by using a single camera.
  • car manufacturers are already making automated piloting features of their own – radar-based cruise control, anti-braking systems (ABS) and lane-control assistance
  • cables and hydraulic pressure valves which previously linked the controls of the vehicle to its working parts are gradually being replaced with electronic circuits
  • While companies such as Google see autonomous cars in a couple of decades
  • CityMobil2 project
  • thinks that they could be hitting the road sooner than that
  • The challenge lies in their environment
  • believes that, in addition to teaching cars to respond autonomously to traffic conditions, traffic should be adapted to automated cars
  • In their current state of development, cybercars could already drive safely in pedestrian areas and designated lanes
  • , investors are at present deterred by their high initial investment and perceived risks.
  • why they are being implemented in small stages
  • The first CityMobil project shuttled passengers across the car park of London Heathrow airport in a fleet of driverless pods
  • CityMobil2, now brings specially designed automated vehicles to designated roads inside the city centre
  • The project plans to procure two sets of automated vehicles which will tour five cities in a series of demonstration projects each lasting six to eight months
  • CityMobil2 is bringing together experts from ministries in each member state to agree on technical requirements by the time the project concludes in 2016 that could feed into a future European directive on the issue
Mars Base

Leave the Driving to Autonav | NASA - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...curiosity20130919.html

scibyte103 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 22 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • For the past year, Curiosity has been driving on Mars following instructions from human rover planners
  • new capability that’s coming on line
  • that will let Curiosity drive herself on Mars
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • called “Autonomous navigation
  • Humans are still
  • going to tell her where to go.  Curiosity is going to decide how to get there
  • Curiosity takes pictures from the navigation cameras, with the hazard cameras, and it’s able to combine that information, put it all together to define a safe way to get to where we ask her to go
  • The drive lasted about 10 meters
  • she turned her camera this way and that to look at what’s ahead of her.
  • She actually curved a little bit to the right to avoid some of the small rocks that were directly in front of her.
  • the actual speed that Curiosity
  • only about 2 inches per second
  • Another part of the autonomous navigation capability is using visual odometry
  • Visual odometry uses images from the mast cameras to look at the terrain before and after a small drive step.
  • Curosity will see a few hundred features and see how they move across the step
  • by tracking those features she can know exactly how far she moved, whether she slipped or twisted a little bit during the drive
Mars Base

Chinese rover & lander beam back Portraits with China's Flag shining on Moon's Surface - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-flag-shining-on-moons-surface

scibyte113 ChineseSpaceProgram

shared by Mars Base on 16 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Dec 15
  • Chang’e-3 lunar lander and rover beamed back portraits of one another snapped from the Moon’s surface
  • displayed
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • Chinese national flag
  • After rolling all six wheels into the dirt, Yutu
  • drove to a location about nine meters north of the lander, according to CCTV commentators
  • then turned around so that the red Chinese flag emblazoned on the front side would be facing the lander’s high resolution color cameras for the eagerly awaited portraits of one another
  • Yutu is nearly the size of a golf cart. It measures about 1.5 m x 1 m on its sides and stands about 1.5 m (nearly 5 feet) tall
  • Yutu will depart the landing site
  • and begin its own lunar trek that’s expected to last at least 3 months. Remove this ad
  • equipped with eight science instruments including multiple cameras, spectrometers, an optical telescope, ground penetrating radar and other sensors to investigate the lunar surface and composition
  • The radar instrument installed at the bottom of the rover can penetrate 100 meters deep below the surface to study the Moon’s structure and composition in unprecedented detail, according to
  • senior advisor of China’s lunar probe project,
  • A UV camera will study the earth and its interaction with solar wind and a telescope will study celestial objects
  • will also investigate the moon’s natural resources for use by potential future Chinese astronauts
  • Most of the science instruments are working including at least three cameras and the ground penetrating radar
  • the extremely cold lunar night and temperature fluctuations of more than 300 degrees Celsius – a great engineering challenge.
  • The rover will hibernate during the two week long lunar night
  • A radioisotopic heater will provide heat to safeguard the rovers computer and electronics
Mars Base

Curiosity Demonstrates New Capability to Scan 360 Degrees for Life Giving Water - and i... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...giving-water-and-is-widespread

scibyte87 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 19 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • The science team guiding NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover have demonstrated a new capability that significantly enhances the robots capability to scan her surroundings for signs of life giving water
  • from a distance
  • the rover appears to have found that evidence for water at the Gale Crater landing site is also more widespread than prior indications.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Mastcam cameras
  • can now also be used as a mineral-detecting and hydration-detecting tool to search 360 degrees around every spot she explores for the ingredients required for habitability and precursors to life
  • Some iron-bearing rocks and minerals can be detected and mapped using the Mastcam’s near-infrared filters
  • scientists used the filter wheels on the Mastcam cameras to run an experiment by taking measurements in different wavelength’s
  • a rock target called ‘Knorr’ in the Yellowknife Bay area were Curiosity is now exploring
  • Researchers found that near-infrared wavelengths on Mastcam can be used as a new analytical technique to detect the presence of some but not all types of hydrated minerals
  • The first use of the Mastcam 34 mm camera to find water was at the rock target called “Knorr.”
  • see elevated hydration signals in the narrow veins that cut many of the rocks in this area
  • These bright veins contain hydrated minerals that are different from the clay minerals in the surrounding rock matrix
  • Mastcam thus serves as an early detective for water without having to drive up to every spot of interest, saving precious time and effort
  • But Mastcam has some limits
  • It is not sensitive to the hydrated phyllosilicates found in the drilling sample at John Klein
  • Mastcam can use the hydration mapping technique to look for targets related to water that correspond to hydrated minerals
  • Yellowknife Bay basin possesses a significant amount of phyllosilicate clay minerals; indicating an environment where Martian microbes could once have thrived in the distant past.
Mars Base

What is image processing? | ESA/Hubble - 0 views

www.spacetelescope.org/...imageprocessing

scibyte40 hubble Contest esa

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • What is image processing?
  • Hubble takes pictures which capture many more colours and gradations of light and dark than the human eye (or consumer digital cameras) can see
  • are also quirks in how its cameras work
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • designed to make scientifically useful observations rather than being optimised for pretty pictures.
  • most of these quirks have already been corrected in the data you find in the archive,
  • images are still scientific data rather than photographs like those from a normal digital camera
  • still contain far more information than the eye can see.
  • beautiful Hubble images that we all know have all been extensively tweaked and optimised by hand, in order to reveal as much of the data as possible
  • brightening the glowing gas in nebulae or compressing the dynamic range of galaxy images so that the core and spiral arms can both be seen equally clearly
  • Image processing is the name for this process of selecting data, adjusting colour, contrast and dynamic range to reveal the hidden detail in Hubble’s scientific data.
Mars Base

Daytime Lightning on Saturn Spotted by Cassini Spacecraft | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/lightning-cassini-picture.html

scibyte55 SaturnLightning cassini

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Cassini orbiter captured the daytime lightning on Saturn as bright blue spots inside a giant storm that raged on the planet last year
  • NASA unveiled the new Saturn lightning photos Wednesday (July 18), adding that the images came as a big surprise
  • The fact that Cassini was able to detect the lightning means that it was very intense."
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • blue filter on the spacecraft's main camera recorded the lightning flashes
  • scientists then exaggerated the blue tint in order to pin down the lightning's location and size
  • analysis of the new images revealed that the energy from the visible lightning flashes alone could have spiked up to 3 billion watts over one second
  • on par with some of the strongest lightning flashes on Earth.  
  • the lightning on Saturn was spotted across a region 100 miles (160 kilometers
  • Cassini spotted eight daytime lightning flashes on Saturn, five in one part of the storm and three in an another
  • storm wrapped completely around Saturn at its peak and is the longest-lived storm ever seen on the ringed planet. It began in December 2010 and lasted about 200 days, finally sputtering out in late June 2011
  • mystery that remains is why the daytime Saturn lightning only turned up in Cassini's blue imaging filter
  • Scientists aren't sure if that means the lightning is actually blue in color, or if it's due to a short exposure time of the camera that helps the camera filter detect the lightning
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