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NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / JMKnapp
A mosaic of images from the Curiosity rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager shows the rover's camera mast and deck. The pictures were taken on Oct. 31 during operations at a Martian sampling site known as Rocknest.
It looks as if someone is taking portraits of NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars from a few feet away — but wait a minute: Who's the photographer?
The answer is that Curiosity itself is responsible for the pictures, with strong assists from image-processing gurus. These views show the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered mobile laboratory at a geological site of interest known as Glenelg, as of Sol 84 (Oct. 31). They were assembled from imagery captured by the Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, looking backward from the end of the rover's 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) robotic arm.
MAHLI's main function is to get microscope-quality views of Martian details, such as the shape of sand grains on the surface — but it can also snap some killer self-portraits, just as smartphone users do with their forward-facing cameras. That's how Curiosity captured a Facebook-style profile picture of its own camera mast back in September, a month after landing in Mars' Gale Crater. Since then, the MAHLI team at San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has really hit its stride.
So have the amateur image processors at UnmannedSpaceflight.com. The website serves as a forum for the fans of interplanetary robotic missions, and particularly for those who love to riff off NASA's raw imagery. Often, the amateurs are quicker on the draw than the professionals, who have to hew a little more closely to the standard procedures for releasing imagery.
The view above, focusing on Curiosity's mast, was put together by Ohio engineer Joe Knapp. The fish-eye view below, with Mount Sharp looming in the background at far right, was done by Stuart Atkinson, a British educator-astronomer who also shares Martian views via The Gale Gazette. Because of the way the mosaic was made, the very end of the robotic arm has made a spooky disappearance.
"I did it in a bit of a rush," Atkinson wrote, "but it doesn't really matter, does it? Just a pretty pic, not an official NASA product. :-)"
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / Stuart Atkinson
This full-color self-portrait of Curiosity was stitched together from MAHLI imagery, with a fisheye-lens perspective. A 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) peak known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp can be seen in the background at right.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
On Sol 84 (Oct. 31, 2012), NASA's Curiosity rover used the MAHLI camera to capture this set of 55 high-resolution images, which were stitched together to create this full-color self-portrait. The mosaic shows the rover at "Rocknest," the spot in Gale Crater where the mission's first scoop sampling took place. Four scoop scars can be seen in the regolith in front of the rover. The base of Gale Crater's 3-mile-high (5-kilometer) mountain, Mount Sharp, rises on the right side of the frame. Mountains in the background to the left are the northern wall of Gale Crater. The Martian landscape appears inverted within the round, reflective ChemCam instrument at the top of the rover's mast. Self-portraits like this one document the state of the rover and allow mission engineers to track changes over time, such as dust accumulation and wheel wear. Due to its location on the end of the robotic arm, only MAHLI is able to image some parts of the craft, including the port-side wheels.
NASA's high-resolution view of Curiosity, released today and shown above, was assembled from 55 MAHLI images. This hi-res view follows up on a lower-resolution view that was issued earlier in the day. On the UnmannedSpaceflight.com forum, Malin Space Science Systems' Michael Caplinger asked for a little patience on the part of his amateur colleagues. "We've been working on this particular project since before landing," Caplinger wrote, "and I feel like we are having to rush it to avoid being scooped."
As someone who's been working on Internet time for 16 years, I know exactly how he feels.
Update for 9:20 p.m. ET: Scientists are due to discuss Curiosity's studies of the Martian atmosphere during a media teleconference at 1 p.m. ET Friday, and it seems likely that methane will be on the agenda. Previous missions have detected methane in the Red Planet's atmosphere, which could hint at microbial activity, volcanic activity or some other intriguing chemical process. For weeks, there's been a buzz in the air about the readings recorded by Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars lab, or SAM. What will come to light on Friday? Check out this backgrounder by Nature's Eric Hand, then tune in JPL's Ustream channel to find out.
Update for 3:35 a.m. ET Nov. 2: I've updated this item with the magnificent high-resolution view from NASA.
More about Curiosity:
- Martian soil reminds scientists of Hawaii
- Curiosity rover digs up shiny particles
- Cosmic Log archive on Curiosity's mission
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
First!
But then, what really is there to say about this?
Nice set of wheels, for a geek. Don't think I could pick up too many chicks with it, however!
@ Roadkill
A billion dollar vehicle and you say that will have problem with picking up chicks? I bet your 5000 or less used car will have more chance, right?
Well I think it's safe to say CuongDNguyen is the bitch in this conversation. Get a sense of humor prick.
What do you mean it can't pick up chicks, Roadkill?
It's got a scoop.....
My self portraits are usually an attractive array of nostril hairs and teeth fillings.
...and the Negroes are like, "Who gives a f*ck about Mars?"
@markwonder: I beg your pardon! What do you mean by your comment on us Blacks? We love and care about astronomy as well as the next person. I hope that was not meant to be a racist comment.
I know a lot of whites love to use these blogs to get their racist attitude on, but you need to be a nut case showing their racist ass stupidity off.
@CuongDNguyen,
Maybe he should use this instead..........http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3928551/1998-pontiac-trans-am or this................http://www.racingjunk.com/Hayabusa/2714971/1999-Hayabusa-Copper.html
Markwonder
I'm wondering why you havn't been banned for life. What an uncalled for racist comment. You win the prize today for most worthless, racist or sexist comment on any blog for November 2, 2012. You may pick up your prize at the next Klan rally in White City, Alabama.
BAN HIM NBC!
What's funny is Mark is so stupid he doesn't realize the director of NASA is black!
Toss the boy a banjo!
Oh, derrr... What I MEANT to say was, ...and the Caucasians are like, "Who gives a f*ck about Mars?"
Restored #1, even though it's pretty garbage, for clarity.
markwonder, smearing everyone in a race is always a bad contribution. Stop it. You're suspended for a week for violating #5 of the Code of Honor.
btj89, george-3973351, D Fields43066, you're each suspended for a day for violating #1 of the Code of Honor.
at the end of the day who cares. if i wanted to see racist comments id go to the other blogs like the mexican american on the most wanted list. those comments were much worse. these comments arent even catchy and are just angry. especially the responses. i understand where you are comming from though tyler. anyway i came to see what people had to say about these pictures because the last one had no arm in sight so how exactly were those pics taken? and secondly the fact that fuel molecules are on mars should mean something right.... i just dont want to be the one to say it.
Its Johnny 5!!!!
If, you bothered to read more, and comment less, then you would have understood, that it is a compilation of a number of images, and the arm has been removed, it is clearly stated IN the article, is that as " clear as mud " for you now?
Amazing photo. Looks like the American southwest desert with mountains in the background with dust being blown in the wind.
Can you believe the revenue from the Twilight series would have covered this entire mission - and that there aren't any more missions scheduled because NASA doesn't have the funding?!
what? What about thermodynamics dont you understand. Freeze and boil. Common. Granted you would need a thermal insulating suit with oxygen. Does water boil when it freezes?
In thin atmosphere you're darn tootin your blood can boil.
I'm not sure about Mars at ground level but it sure can boil because of a thin atmosphere.
Mike Davis-433554
NASA has many missions going on at this moment and more scheduled to fly. Read and learn something.
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/index.html
as long as you exhale, the effects of exposure would be survivable for short periods of time (15 seconds or so).
animal experiments have shown that the body can survive for roughly 60-90 seconds, but loss of consciousness occurs in 10-15 seconds
What is Twilight? People and all their hip code words these days - ugh! If you use all this code lingo; you can't slam NBC or MSN writers when they don't give the complete story...who has (or wants) all this time too look all this jargon up...not me, not gunna do it.
If it was here in Tucson there would be a cross ever quarter mile marking where someone got run over...so nice of them to share their misery.
@ ArterianMSP,
"So your death would be measured in the same amount of time the oxygen in your brain will hold out." - Well now wouldn't that be a downer............Oh Bother ;)
"Thankfully, you will pass out of lack of oxygen before the really nasty things happen to you." - So the storm cloud does have a silver lining :)
Well, geez I hate to say this, because I'm a big supporter of science, NASA, and even the whole Jesus' Wife controversy, c'mon folks. Mars looks just like New Mexico without the cactus or the Navajo's, Hopi's or tourist traps.
Man, where are the great discoveries? What about those shiny objects in the sand? What's the point.
Yes, we put a rover on Mars, a planet millions of miles away and it's sending us pictures of ...NEW MEXICO?
I hate to be like this. I really do. I was very excited about this mission and all it's possibilities but so far all we've gotten is some pretty boring vacation pictures. Where is the sex appeal? Where is the adventure? Where are the worms?
I wish there were worms.
Gosh, I never thought about New Mexico NOT being sexy. Now I'm depressed.
Exactly what I was thinking. Looks amazingly like the southwest desert of the U.S. Ever watch the movie 'Capricorn One' with James Brolin, Elliot Gould, Sam Waterston and a pre-murderous O.J. Simpson? Hmmm....
"Pre-murderous"? I'm not so sure. He killed a little bit of my soul with that movie.
I just wish the picture were more squat and wide, instead of tall and narrow. I'm having a hard time cropping it for a monitor background. I'm going to have to choose between cutting off the camera up on the mast, or the wheel.
I'm not saying New Mexico isn't wonderful. I love New Mexico. But for $40 and a days drive I can take MY OWN pictures of a landscape that looks a lot like Mars in NEW MEXICO. So why spend eleventy-ga-zillion dollars to go to Mars just so a rover can send back the same pictures I could have taken in New Mexico for a whole lot less?
I really hate to be like this, but GEEEZ LOU-EEEZE, is that all there is?
I admit my expectations were unrealistic. I wanted the rover to find evidence of past life, lost cities, John Carter and Dejah Thoris. Not New Mexico!
I wish there were worms.
Well, just consider how much easier it is to land on Tatooine than, say, Coruscant or Endor.
I volunteer to be the first man to go to and die on Mars. NASA... Your move.
I find there's really no place you can go in the desert and not find offroad tire tracks.
Well, stop looking back!
Beautiful on the inside?
Notice the ghostly image in the camera's lense.
The different photos we've been seeing are great. An amazing technology just to send these cameras all the way to mars. And then see the clarity is awesome. But, I would like to know more about the experiments with the martian soil and atmosphere. If there has been any indication of life in the soil. The mineral makeup. How much water may be there. If it's possible to terraform the planet, etc. Congrats to nasa and all others involved.
Also you can go to NASA JPL and get on the email list for daily updates on the mission.
I have all of the emails since just before the landing saved.
Contact me and I'll send you the most important ones or JPL may have an archive you can look through, would check but I gotta go.
Amazingly bad-ass. Really.
Say Cheeeeessssseeee...LOL..
I noticed how the daylight, color of the air, and landscape look like the Jazeera desert in Iraq or Udari range in Kuwait. If not for a lack of oxygen, a person might think they would see a Bedouin tent in the distance and camels or sheep.
Just imagine, here we are, seeing photos from Mars. I am so fascinated by this whole operation of the Mars rover. SOmeday this will be commonplace but to me, as a Senior Citizen, I am just fascinated by these photos.
Me to. Wonder what our grand kids will see.
Well said William. I agree. Another question to bring up how did we get the snapshot of the full robot? Who took that shot? I'm beginning to think that this is just another trick to make us think that we're on Mars as they did with the Lunar landings. Just saying...
Right ... As noted in the item, the shot was assembled from multiple pictures taken by the camera on the end of the robot's arm. But of course that camera couldn't take a picture of itself, just as a person taking multiple pictures of him or herself with a smartphone for stitching together can't take a picture of the forearm holding the camera. So the end of the robotic arm "disappears" in this picture. As for the experiments with Martian soil and atmosphere, stay tuned: There's a news conference on Friday during which the MSL team is expected to report its measurements of METHANE in the Martian atmosphere. I'll add that to the item itself.
Does it bother you that nobody with an understanding of mathematics, physics, and science doubts we landed on the moon? Now, I can give you a million reasons why we didn't stay and why we're not going back. We only landed 6 times (plus the failure of Apollo 13) along with the 2 other missions which orbited to test out materials and map out sites (Apollo 8 and 10). Each of those launched on the sorta-kinda gigantic Saturn V rocket. And that sorta-kinda was expensive. Even if there was nobody on it, the Saturn V would have cost the same. So, if you know how to build working rockets and spaceships... Why not go to the moon? And, of course, fake the footage of the fake moon landing on the moon.
You're out of your mind. Get back on your meds, asap.
So. you've never seen someone's arm's length, self-taken, cellphone picture...?
Go Go gadget rover.
Oh obvisously it's all a conspiricy to that one guy WHO DIDN'T READ HOW THEY GOT THE PHOTO. Nutbag, need to go back to school and take reading classes again? DUH!
Spirit
You, are a jerk
Just saying!
I was taking bets on how long it would take the Con-Quacks to show up. They LOVE this type stuff, i.e. "It looks strange. I don't understand it. I haven't a clue what's really happening. Therefore it is a conspiracy & I need to invent a good Con-Story to explain it."
Sad thing is, some of these people are actually very intelligent, just lacking old-fashion common sense. Just think how many REAL problems could be solved if that brain power was channeled into legitimate projects ..... rather than showing how a Mars-Buggie is actually here on Earth, because an engineer just snapped a picture of it & posted it on the NASA site.
Was wondering when you moon hoax / flat earth people would show up
i know im calling some of you out by saying this... but lets not call eachother out. you would never call someone out in person. you would just make the statement! the last pic shows the full rover with background so how can it be that the arm is sticking out somewhere?
my point being that we dont need to fill up comment space with trivial back and forths. lets ask more questions?
I really would like to see a close up of the lens from this picture. Mark-998558, It looks to much like a photo taken hear in the desert.
My 20 year-old cat is named MAHLI! lol
Don't know where this # behind my name came from. But.. As a photographer and detail specialist, I can't figure out why these photo's were enhanced. I mean the top photo only. No tracks, how'd the sucker get there and as part Indian, How long ago? Who messed with this pic and why? Questions to ask my friends> I see many things with the other two pics, but they look normal.
There's no mystery, really. The color balance was indeed adjusted in the top photo. That picture also shows just part of the rover, so it misses out on showing the terrain that has the rover's tracks on it. (You can see those tracks in the full-body views.) Curiosity has been in that area for weeks. As I noted in the item, the person who "messed" with the imagery (or enhanced it) is Joe Knapp.
Thanks Alan... you deliver and then some. I look forward to the methane readouts and the pics looks curiously stellar... (Pun intended). And give Joe Knapp a slap of approval for me. (rhyme intended)
My God these images are just amazing. It reminds me of when I was a kid, during the space race in the 60's. Looking at them I feel the same excitement. The human desire to explore and quest for knowledge.
paul-2187097 said, "As a photographer and detail specialist ....."
Not much of one ..... since you don't know how to look at pic#2, which lives 12" below pic#1, giving a perfect explanation of what you can't figure out about pic#1.
Rule#1 of ALL Con-Theories = Don't invent a conspiracy & there won't be one.
If anyone else would like to try their hand at this, here's what I did:
1) get the raw image tiles from the public NASA website
2) use the free panorama stitching program hugin to put the image tiles together in a montage (I used only some of the images concentrated around the mast and deck)
3) use an image processing program like Adobe Lightroom to adjust color balance, contrast, etc.
Hugin is a very nice program but it does take some practice and there are lots of knobs to tweak to get a good result. Even so, the image above may have some imperfections, but hey, this isn't rocket science--that was NASA getting this amazing instrument there in the first place. Also amazing is that NASA/JPL and Malin make the raw images available within hours of when they're taken.
#10.6
Sir, If I may say so, You have done an excellent job, and thank you for the results, much appreciated!
Great job, Joe!
Beautiful pics... Go Joe!
nice work joe knapp. i ve seen the love that people in NASA have for space exploration like when the asteroids hit jupiter. why would anyone waste so much time and money on a conspiracy? picture yourself in that position! there is nothing to gain from lying and we can't move forward with space exploration by spending money on a hoax. what happened to dreaming? some of you have lost sight of that.
Maybe there's a ghost out there who wants to trick or treat.
To Alan Boyle : Its still no answer to my question. Why was it enhanced. Are we supposed to look at that image and accept it as gospel. Come on. I was at the very first space shuttle lauunch and have seen 4 others. NASA can do better than this.
"So have the amateur image processors at UnmannedSpaceflight.com. The website serves as a forum for the fans of interplanetary robotic missions, and particularly for those who love to riff off NASA's raw imagery. Often, the amateurs are quicker on the draw than the professionals, who have to hew a little more closely to the standard procedures for releasing imagery."
Per the article, NASA didn't do this yet - Joe Knapp, an Ohio Engineer, put the picture together.
SMH
arterian;
absolutely beautiful comeback!
too bad it will likely go over the heads of the conspiracy nutcases...
his comeback was deleted
Kinda looks like one of the probe droids the Empire sent to the ice planet Hoth.
Still no comments from NASA about the water erosion. Where did the water go? The comet that will go close to Mars next October might bring it back. Next summer get out your lawn chairs and watch the night sky.
Water sublimates on Mars. That is, it turns from a solid to a gas. It can't flow in liquid form for long because of the make up of the atmosphere. As the Martian atmosphere escaped into space it lost it's ability to keep flowing water on the planet. Less pressure made it colder. The remaining frozen CO2 is what's left. That will probably eventually go away too as the last of the atmosphere slips away over the next couple of hundred million [to a billion] years or so. Soon looking at Mars will be like looking at the moon. Black sky and only the history of what used to be. Kinda sad but it shows just how special our planet is.
Now, there's potential for flowing water in Martian caves and if there's life that's probably going to be one of the first places to look. It makes sense too: you have higher pressure because of the [partially] enclosed space and a natural shield against radiation among others. The real issue though is whether we can realistically reach and explore those caves.
#14.2 -
See " Making Mars Habitable " in particular " vents "!
isnt there a moon that loses constant water into the atmosphere like a funnel? is that titan? this process reminds me of what may be happening on mars.
These are really cool, very eerie in a way.
Amazing! That is so cool to see another planet in such detail, and the similarity to the Mojave Desert is spooky.
The wheels hold the dirt on them like if its mud..I thought its a dry dusty rocky planet.
Seeing the tracks in the dirt is ok..can see tracks in sand too on a dry beach here. The dirt on the wheels is strange to me, figure it would never hold unless...WET! Or is it the dirt is stuck in the grooves of the wheels???
possibly a static charge,mike...
typical liberal media will not give jesus credit for anythting. everyone knows it is he who is snapping the pics!
The eerie distance of nothingness reminds me of that song Rocket Man by Elton John when he sings its lonely out in space.
Only in this case it would be Mars.
I can't imagine standing right there knowing how far away I would be from home or anyone for that matter.
The pictures are truly amazing in any case.
Maybe one day we will be standing there looking back at the camera saying hello to Earth one day in the future.
Sorry, you will never sell me on this one. If it was a self portrait, you would see an extension arm hooked to the Curiosity and leading away to where the camera is suppose to be. Gotta do better than this to make me a believer.
lacywild
Did you ever think that maybe they just airbrushed that part out so you could enjoy the full portrait of the image itself?
I mean the whole idea was to try and get a full portrait shot of the thing with parts all stitched together.
Just a thought....
you can see it in the reflection of Curiosity's main mast.
thats the wonderment of science....everyone has a choice till proven otherwise, Lacy
"Because of the way the mosaic was made, the very end of the robotic arm has made a spooky disappearance.
"I did it in a bit of a rush," Atkinson wrote, "but it doesn't really matter, does it? Just a pretty pic, not an official NASA product. :-)""
Seems to Me, no one is trying to " fool the fool that fools themselves ";-)
exactly Eagle, the author of the pic freely admits it is a rush and the conspiracy nuts jump all over the composite pic...
lol Dan, Seems some are so eager, to prove a " conspiRacy " they race themselves to " fools or dunce corner "" :-)
Almost looks like a roadway on the upper right hand side of the photo in the distance, but I know that is just the stitching and panoramic lens causing that.
Mmmm? lol
good pic
must be one of those "canals"...
So where are all the right wing Romney supporters claiming that it's all a government hoax and that the picture was made in the Arizona desert by a guy with his Nikon?
Come on conspiracy theorists with your tinfoil hats, you are falling down on the job here.
This is fake!! The photo of the rover is actually taken in the Arizona desert. No, way this is Mars!!
Thanks Ricky. I appreciate your comment. I was disappointed that this point of view had not been expressed...LOL.