Sunday, August 12, 2012

Curiosity's Deck


This full-resolution self-portrait shows the deck of NASA's Curiosity rover from the rover's Navigation cameras. The back of the rover can be seen at the top left of the image, and two of the rover's right side wheels can be seen on the left. Part of the pointy rim of Gale Crater forms the lighter color strip in the background. Bits of gravel, about 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) in size, are visible on the deck of the rover.

This mosaic is made of eight images, each of 1,024 by 1,024 pixels, taken late at night on August 7 PDT (early morning August 8 EDT). It uses an average of the Navcam positions to synthesize the point of view of a single camera, with a field of view of 120 degrees. Seams between the images have been minimized, but a few are still visible. The wide field of view introduces some distortion at the edges of the mosaic.

The "augmented reality" or AR tag seen in the middle of the image can be used in the future with smart phones to obtain more information about the mission.


This full-resolution image shows part of the deck of NASA's Curiosity rover taken from one of the rover's Navigation cameras looking toward the back left of the rover.

On the left of this image, part of the rover's power supply is visible. To the right of the power supply can be seen the pointy low-gain antenna and side of the paddle-shaped high-gain antenna for communications directly to Earth. The rim of Gale Crater is the lighter colored band across the horizon. The effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground can be seen on the right side of the image, next to the rover.

This full-resolution image is 1,024 by 1,024 pixels. The image was taken on August 7 PDT (August 8 EDT).

Photo credit: (1) NASA/JPL-Caltech; (2) NASA/JPL-Caltech

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