If a group of tourists piled out of a transport
vehicle onto the surface of Mars, they'd no doubt start snapping pictures
wildly. NASA's Curiosity rover, set to touch down on the Red Planet the evening
of Aug. 5 PDT (early morning EDT), will take a more careful approach to
capturing its first scenic views.
The car-size rover's very first images will come
from the one-megapixel Hazard-Avoidance cameras (Hazcams) attached to the body
of the rover. Once engineers have determined that it is safe to deploy the
rover's Remote Sensing Mast and its high-tech cameras, a process that may take
several days, Curiosity will begin to survey its exotic surroundings.
"A set of low-resolution gray scale Hazcam
images will be acquired within minutes of landing on the surface," said
Justin Maki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Once
all of the critical systems have been checked out by the engineering team and
the mast is deployed, the rover will image the landing site with
higher-resolution cameras."
Maki led the development of Curiosity's 12
engineering cameras -- eight Hazcams at the front and back of the rover, and
four Navigation cameras (Navcams) at the top of the rover's
"look-out" mast. All the engineering cameras acquire black-and-white
pictures from left and right stereo "eyes," which are merged to
provide three-dimensional information. Half of the cameras are backups, meaning
there's one set for each of the rover’s A- and B-side redundant computers.
The very first images are likely to arrive more than
two hours after landing, due to the timing of NASA's signal-relaying Odyssey
orbiter.
They will be captured with the left and right Hazcams at the back and
front of the rover, and they will not yet be full-resolution (the two images
arriving on Earth first are "thumbnail" copies, which are 64 by 64
pixels in size). The Hazcams are equipped with very wide-angle, fisheye lenses,
initially capped with clear dust covers. The covers are designed to protect the
cameras from dust that may be kicked up during landing; they are clear just in
case they don't pop off as expected.
Keywords – What to expect when curiosity starts
snapping pictures, 12 engineering cameras acquire black and white pictures,
Hazcams at the back and front of the rover.
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