They should eventually release a series of regular-quality images taken sequentially as the camera pans left and right, and have a competition to see who can squeeze the most resolution out of them using image enhancement and fusion techniques. There are lots of interesting stochastic methods out there (e.g. "compressed sensing") that have application for this kind of thing. It would make a great academic competition.
Mars rover camera project manager explains 2MP camera choice
71–80 of 89 posts
Re: Mars rover camera project manager explains 2MP camera choice
#72Now that I find out that the main reason for using a 2 MP camera is because that's what the specifications were in 2004, I'm a lot more disappointed than if it was just about the speed of transfer between Mars and Earth. 2 MP cameras were in high-end phones in 2004, but you'd expect NASA to use something a little more advanced than what was available in phones in 2004. How much more would it have cost them to use a 5…
This is not a point-and-shoot camera for your grandma to use. It's hardened against radiation, vibration, heat, cold, dust, etc., sending back high-quality RAW images for a planned two-year mission. So no, it's not "$100 more".
I think your argument can be used to reach the opposite conclusion: since most of the cost is not in the sensor but in the hardening against radiation, vibration, heat, cold, dust, etc. then putting in a better sensor would be basically free. Of course the article explains why they didn't; maybe mtgx just didn't read it.
Re: Mars rover camera project manager explains 2MP camera choice
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is not a point-and-shoot camera for your grandma to use. It's hardened against radiation, vibration, heat, cold, dust, etc., sending back high-quality RAW images for a planned two-year mission. So no, it's not "$100 more".
I think your argument can be used to reach the opposite conclusion: since most of the cost is not in the sensor but in the hardening against radiation, vibration, heat, cold, dust, etc. then putting in a better sensor would be basically free. Of course the article explains why they didn't; maybe mtgx just didn't read it.
Maybe... IANAEE but chip design and materials is probably still important for all that. It's not necessarily a regular chip wrapped in heat/radiation/whatever shielding. I'm trying to google around a bit for more info but have to get back to work eventually...
Re: Mars rover camera project manager explains 2MP camera choice
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
You offered two possible explanations for the use of a 2MP camera, (a) money, (b) risk. I was saying that, in this case, it did not really have to do with money. My second sentence above was trying to point out that many people underestimate how important risk is to a space mission.
Oh, no, I wasn’t claiming that this change had anything to do with money. In this case it was clearly related to risk. I was just trying to make a general point.
Thanks, understood.
Re: Mars rover camera project manager explains 2MP camera choice
#75The mast camera is actually two cameras with zoom of each camera fixed at two different values: http://msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov/Instruments/Mastcam/ James Cameron lobbied to make zoom lenes for the cameras so they could be set at the same zoom level to create stereo pairs for 3D images. JPL had "problems designing the lens without using wet lubricants which would require battery-sapping heating" Difficult trade-off…
Given that the Plutonium power core is putting off 2000 watts of heat in order to generate 125 watts electricity, I find it surprising that they don't have enough heat to keep wet-lubricants heated sufficiently. But - that's an awfully big Rover, and it does get pretty cold on Mars... 2000 watts at 14 years in kilowatt hour - 245,000 kilowatt hours.
Remember, it's got a 14 year lifetime because the half-life of Pu-241 is 14.1 years. At the end of that time, half of its mass will be gone, and it'll be producing half as much heat. It won't produce a steady 2KW for 14 years and then bing, go out like a lightbulb. Power produced will slowly fall over time.
Re: Mars rover camera project manager explains 2MP camera choice
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Last minute changes are made. Or at the very least I know of one such change in the case of Curiosity. The dust covers over the haz cams (the navigation cameras on the belly of Curiosity) were added in the last minute. Here is the engineer who implemented them writing about the covers: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=29612.msg93... Basically, the Phoenix lander (landed on May 25th 2008) kicked up mor…
Yeesh, I don't even remember the Phoenix lander. Kinda crazy that there have been enough to start losing track of them.
It's the one that found water ice on Mars.
Re: Mars rover camera project manager explains 2MP camera choice
#77just curious, why they are releasing only black and white pictures
The sensor is black and white. This lets them collect the most accurate information about how much light hits each part of the sensor. To take a color image they put a color filter in front of the lens, then they can recolor the black and white image according to the color of the filter. If they take multiple pictures with different filters, they can reconstruct a color image. http://areo.info/mer/
Actually, the MastCams on Curiosity are bayer-pattern color sensors.
Re: Mars rover camera project manager explains 2MP camera choice
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think your argument can be used to reach the opposite conclusion: since most of the cost is not in the sensor but in the hardening against radiation, vibration, heat, cold, dust, etc. then putting in a better sensor would be basically free. Of course the article explains why they didn't; maybe mtgx just didn't read it.
Maybe... IANAEE but chip design and materials is probably still important for all that. It's not necessarily a regular chip wrapped in heat/radiation/whatever shielding. I'm trying to google around a bit for more info but have to get back to work eventually...
It is an off-the-shelf Kodak sensor.
Re: Mars rover camera project manager explains 2MP camera choice
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given that the Plutonium power core is putting off 2000 watts of heat in order to generate 125 watts electricity, I find it surprising that they don't have enough heat to keep wet-lubricants heated sufficiently. But - that's an awfully big Rover, and it does get pretty cold on Mars... 2000 watts at 14 years in kilowatt hour - 245,000 kilowatt hours.
Remember, it's got a 14 year lifetime because the half-life of Pu-241 is 14.1 years. At the end of that time, half of its mass will be gone, and it'll be producing half as much heat. It won't produce a steady 2KW for 14 years and then bing, go out like a lightbulb. Power produced will slowly fall over time.
You mean, half of the plutonium mass will be gone. It will be almost completely be replaced by other elements. Though I don't know how much energy they give off in radiation, or whether they are stable.
Re: Mars rover camera project manager explains 2MP camera choice
#80I would like to see this result in a frustrated James Cameron building his own Mars probe for filmmaking
I'm surprised he didn't just kick in his own funding. Is $10 million enough? $20 million? What's the price of going from being a director to a legend?
He's already a legend in my book: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/mar/26/mariana-trench-ja...