RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Rover’

Video: Curiosity rover captures 360-degree panorama of Mount Sharp on Mars, showing changing landscape

24 Aug

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover recently explored Mount Sharp. The mountain is 8km (5 mi) tall and is within the 154km-wide (96 mi) basin of Mars’s Gale Crater. Curiosity captured a new 360-degree panorama at Mount Sharp, revealing its diverse terrain and shedding light on the area’s ancient environment.

NASA writes, ‘Images of knobbly rocks and rounded hills are delighting scientists as NASA’s Curiosity rover climbs Mount Sharp, a 5-mile-tall (8-kilometer-tall) mountain within the 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) basin of Mars’ Gale Crater. The rover’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, highlights those features in a panorama captured on July 3, 2021 (the 3,167th Martian day, or sol, of the mission).’

Studying the region has been a long-term goal for the Curiosity mission, which is now in its ninth year on Mars. By studying the layers of Mount Sharp, scientists hope to understand how the environment of Gale Crater dried over time. Similar changes in mineral composition are seen across the planet, so understanding Gale Crater should pay dividends in understanding other parts of Mars.

‘The rocks here will begin to tell us how this once-wet planet changed into the dry Mars of today, and how long habitable environments persisted even after that happened,’ said Abigail Fraeman, Curiosity’s deputy project scientist, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

‘NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this 360-degree view near “Rafael Navarro Mountain” on July 3, 2021, the 3,167th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Stitched together from 129 individual images, the panorama has been white-balanced so that the colors of the rock materials resemble how they would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. A craggy hump that stretches 450 feet (137 meters) tall, the geologic feature is located on Mount Sharp in northwest Gale Crater.’ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Click to enlarge.

When Curiosity landed on Mars on August 5, 2012, its primary mission was to study whether different Martian environments could have supported microbial life in Mars’s ancient past. Lakes and groundwater once existed within Gale Crater, and scientists want to use Curiosity to understand better what happened and how Mars changed over time.

Looking forward, Curiosity is currently working its way up a path between Rafael Navarro Mountain and a towering butte. In the coming year, Curiosity will drive past these features and enter a canyon. It will then revisit Greenheugh Pediment.

You can learn more about the Curiosity mission by visiting NASA’s dedicated Mars website. You can also check out some of our prior coverage, including Curiosity photographing rare shimmering clouds in June and a neat selfie Curiosity sent to Earth in March.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Video: Curiosity rover captures 360-degree panorama of Mount Sharp on Mars, showing changing landscape

Posted in Uncategorized

 

NASA’s ambitious Perseverance rover lands on Mars and sends back its first images

19 Feb
The first image sent back to Earth from Perseverance following its successful landing on Mars. You can see Perseverance’s shadow in the foreground. Image credit: NASA

On July 30, 2020, NASA launched its Mars Perseverance Rover on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Yesterday, February 18, 2021, Perseverance landed successfully on the red planet.

The 2,260-pound (1,025kg) rover touched down with precision at an ancient river delta site in Jezero Crater. Perseverance is exploring an area where a lake existed nearly 4 billion years ago. The Perseverance mission has numerous objectives, including exploring its geologically diverse landing site, assessing ancient habitability, seeking signs of ancient life, gathering rock and soil samples, and demonstrating technology for future exploration by robots and humans alike.

Map showing Perseverance’s landing site at the Jezero Crater on Mars. Image credit: NASA

In the video below, you can see mission control react when Perseverance landed on Mars. Mission control was recorded using an Insta360 Pro 2 camera. When using a compatible browser, you can rotate the camera around mission control. The moment of elation is around the 1:46:00 mark. It’s an emotional moment for the team, and it’s cool to see it captured in 360 degrees.

Perseverance will spend at least one Martian year (about two Earth years) exploring the landing site region. Onboard are seven instruments, including the MastCam-Z, SuperCam, Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), and Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC). The Mastcam-Z is an advanced camera system with panoramic and stereoscopic imaging capabilities. The camera, which can zoom, will analyze the minerals of the Martian surface. SuperCam is provides imaging, chemical composition analysis, and mineralogy at a distance.

Engineers working on Perseverance. Image credit: NASA

PIXL is an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and high-resolution imager. PIXL will map the elemental composition of surface materials. SHERLOC provides fine-scale imaging and uses an ultraviolet laser to map mineralogy and organic compounds. SHERLOC is the first UV Raman spectrometer to land on Mars. SHERLOC also includes a high-res color camera for microscopic imaging of Mars’ surface.

Mission control. Image credit: NASA

It’s difficult to overstate what an accomplishment it is to land not only NASA’s most ambitious Mars rover yet, but also to do so during a pandemic. As Chelsea Gohd writes for Space.com, ‘This mission didn’t just propel technology and science forward, it demonstrated the incredible Perseverance of the human spirit. Despite everything, the teams at NASA were able to accomplish this incredible feat, which, even in ‘normal times,’ would have been difficult.’ Matt Wallace of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) shared a similar sentiment following Perseverance’s successful landing, ‘It’s been a tough year. It’s been tough to do this mission in this environment. But the team, like they have with every other challenge, has stepped up to it…’

An illustration of the Perseverance rover. Image credit: NASA

If NASA had been forced to delay the launch from last July, the launch window would have been pushed back 26 months due to planetary alignment. Perseverance is a $ 2.7B mission, so a more than two-year delay is a tough pill to swallow. Instead, NASA was swift to enact COVID protocols, which came with unique challenges and ultimately allowed the mission to continue as scheduled.

This is the first image Perseverance sent back to Earth following its successful landing on Mars. Image credit: NASA

Back to yesterday’s historic landing. Perseverance, or ‘Percy’ as some at mission control call the rover, landed at 3:55 p.m. ET. The landing went smoothly, and Percy wasted no time sending its first image back to Earth. Perseverance then sent a second image, showing the view from the rear of the spacecraft. Both images were captured using onboard ‘hazard cameras,’ and the protective covers were still in place. Future images will be more detailed and impressive, but these are nonetheless important photos. The images will be used to help the team very precisely locate Perseverance’s landing site on the Martian surface.

The second image shows the view from the rear of Perseverance. Image credit: NASA

For Perseverance, the next few days on Mars will be spent exploring the area. Its handlers will come to grips with the area and stabilize the rover’s onboard systems, including communications systems that will allow specialized software to be uploaded from Earth.

A 3D-printed model of MastCam-Z. Image credit: NASA

Per Space.com, ‘Perservance’s head-like, instrument-laden mast will also be deployed in these first few sols, allowing capture of great new imagery. For example, the rover’s MastCam-Z camera system is scheduled to take its first color panorama on sol 3.’ Mars 2020 deputy project manager Jennifer Trosper says that NASA will do about four days transitioning to new software before digging its teeth into planned scientific endeavors. It’s taken a considerable amount of time, money, and work to get to this point so that the team won’t rush anything.

As you can see in this diagram, Perseverance includes a lot of onboard instruments and equipment. Among other objectives, the rover will use its instruments to analyze and gather information on the chemical and mineral composition of the Martian surface. Image credit: NASA

Perseverance includes an onboard helicopter, Ingenuity. The four-pound helicopter will drop from the rover soon and, if all goes well, become the blueprint for future extraterrestrial exploration.

An illustration of NASA’s new Mars helicopter, Ingenuity. Its maiden flight will mark the first powered flight on another world. Image credit: NASA

If you want to take part in the celebration of Perseverance’s successful landing, NASA has set up a Mars Photo Booth. You can upload a selfie and place yourself on Mars, in mission control, or in front of a handful of other backgrounds.

There’s a lot to look forward to over the next Martian year (and hopefully longer). Perseverance includes 23 cameras, so we should be treated to some amazing imagery throughout 2021 and beyond.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on NASA’s ambitious Perseverance rover lands on Mars and sends back its first images

Posted in Uncategorized

 

NASA Curiosity rover breaks its own record with new 1.8-billion-pixel Mars panorama

09 Mar

On March 4, NASA shared the highest-resolution panoramic Mars image ever captured by its Curiosity rover. The panorama features 1.8 billion pixels and is comprised of more than 1,000 individual images captured by the rover over the Thanksgiving 2019 holiday break in the US.

NASA explains that Curiosity captured two different panoramas using two different lenses: the record-breaking 1.8-billion-pixel panorama using the Mast Camera (‘Mastcam’) with a telephoto lens and a smaller 650-million-pixel panorama using a medium-angle lens. The larger panorama captured with the telephoto lens was not able to include most of the rover in the final image, but the lower-resolution panorama does include Curiosity amid the landscape.

Curiosity’s smaller 650-million-pixel panorama. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The Mastcam is mounted at a height of 2m (6.5ft) on Curiosity; it supports capturing color images and videos using ‘left eye’ and ‘right eye’ lenses featuring 34mm and 100mm focal lengths. The camera has a resolution of 2MP, which produces images with a 1600 x 1200 resolution. When recording video, Curiosity’s Mastcam can capture 10 frames per second. According to NASA, the rover’s 8GB storage can hold 5,500 or more Raw frames.

While the mission team was away on holiday leave from November 24 to December 1, Curiosity worked to snap images using Mastcam over a six-and-a-half-hour period of time spread across four days. The camera was programmed to take the images from between noon and 2 PM local time to ensure that the lighting was consistent for the eventual panorama.

The new record 1.8-billion-pixel image. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA explains this holiday break provided a rare moment of downtime for the rover, which typically does not stay in one place long enough to capture so many images from the same vantage point. The resulting 1.8-billion-pixel panorama, which exceeds the rover’s previous record 1.3-billion-pixel image, took ‘months’ to assemble.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada said:

While many on our team were at home enjoying turkey, Curiosity produced this feast for the eyes. This is the first time during the mission we’ve dedicated our operations to a stereo 360-degree panorama.

The public can download a full-resolution version of the 1.8-billion-pixel panorama in JPEG and TIFF formats from NASA JPL’s website here, as well as the 650-million-pixel version from the same link. At its highest resolution, the panorama has a massive 2.43GB file size. The space agency offers lower quality versions with file sizes ranging from 82MB all the way down to 350KB.

In addition, NASA has an online 360-degree viewer to present the panorama in full screen with a zoom tool.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on NASA Curiosity rover breaks its own record with new 1.8-billion-pixel Mars panorama

Posted in Uncategorized

 

NASA Curiosity rover captures 360 panorama from its Vera Rubin Ridge ‘Rock Hall’ drill site

15 Feb

Last month, NASA announced that Curiosity rover had wrapped up its work at Mars’ Vera Rubin Ridge and would be making its way to a clay-rich region near the Red Planet’s Mt. Sharp for additional work. In an update on that mission last week, the space agency shared a panoramic image captured by Curiosity’s MastCam at the ridge drill site before it left, as well as an interactive video of the area.

Curiosity’s last drill site on the ridge is known as ‘Rock Hall,’ and it’s located relatively close to the ‘clay-bearing unit’ that researchers will study next. A panorama from the Rock Hall location was created using images captured by the rover before it departed the site. NASA also published a 360-degree video from the images and annotated a few landmarks in it, including Mt. Sharp in the distance.

Visible near Mt. Sharp is the clay-rich region, now called ‘Glen Torridon,’ where Curiosity will help researchers uncover more details about Mars’ landscape and history. The rover is equipped with multiple cameras, including the MastCam and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), which is attached to its robotic arm.

Last month, NASA shared a stitched image of the full Curiosity rover at the Rock Hall drill site; that image is made from 57 individual images that were captured using the MAHLI camera. The ‘selfie’ features the final Rock Hall drill site in the bottom center of the image.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on NASA Curiosity rover captures 360 panorama from its Vera Rubin Ridge ‘Rock Hall’ drill site

Posted in Uncategorized

 

NASA Curiosity Rover captures rare photographs of clouds on Mars

12 Aug
Clouds drift across the sky above a Martian horizon in this photograph captured on July 17, 2017 by the Navcam on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/York University

Last month, NASA’s Curiosity Rover captured something (appropriately enough) curious in the Martian sky: clouds. Specifically, Curiosity snapped several sequences of “wispy, early-season clouds resembling Earth’s ice-crystal cirrus clouds” that NASA is calling “the most clearly visible so far” since the Rover landed 5 years and 5 days ago.

As NASA explains in a news release:

Researchers used Curiosity’s Navigation Camera (Navcam) to take two sets of eight images of the sky on an early Martian morning last month. For one set, the camera pointed nearly straight up. For the other, it pointed just above the southern horizon. Cloud movement was recorded in both and was made easier to see by image enhancement.

Each sequence of 8 images was enhanced and turned into an animated GIF:

To learn more about these photos and the science behind why there are clouds on Mars, and why they were a lot more common billions of years ago, head over to the NASA news release by clicking here.

All photos courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/York University

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on NASA Curiosity Rover captures rare photographs of clouds on Mars

Posted in Uncategorized

 

NASA ortbiter snaps aerial photo of lonesome Mars Curiosity rover

23 Jun
The bright blue dot at the center of this photo by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is actually NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, going about its lonely mission on the Red Planet. © Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

No human photographer could capture this aerial photograph. That’s because this image is literally out of this world – it was captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on June 5th, and shows the Mars Curiosity Rover as it traverses the red planet, approximately 241,500,000 miles away from where I sit typing this right now.

It’s hard to spot, and you have to look really closely, but there’s a small blue dot in the very middle of the photograph above. This closer crop might help:

There, amid the Martian landscape, you can actually see the Curiosity rover as it trekked along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp, on its way to ‘Vera Rubin Ridge.’

The photograph was taken by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which captures a red band, blue -green band, and an infrared band, combining these together to form an RGB image. Because of this, the photograph is not a so-called ‘true color’ image, and the orbiter appears bluer than it actually is.

Oh, and if you’re curious, you can actually see what Curiosity was seeing when this photo was captured. The rover was using its Mast Camera to shoot these photographs of the Martian landscape while its picture was taken.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on NASA ortbiter snaps aerial photo of lonesome Mars Curiosity rover

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Explore Mars with 360-degree image shot by NASA Curiosity Rover

11 Jun

Earlier this year, NASA released a 360-degree image from the perspective of the Curiosity Mars Rover. The scene is made up of a combination of multiple exposures taken with the rover’s 2MP ‘Mastcam’ camera, which we wrote about back in 2012.

The resulting image is pretty incredible, and if you have access to a Google Cardboard viewer you can experience it in 3D. So if you’ve got a free few minutes this weekend, why not explore the surface of Mars? 

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Explore Mars with 360-degree image shot by NASA Curiosity Rover

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Stair Rover Goes Where Other Skateboards Can’t

11 Jul

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

Stair Rover Skateboard Design 1

An eight-wheel mechanism allows the unusual Stair-Rover skateboard to descend flights of steps the way conventional skateboards never could. Designed by Po-Chih Lai, the wheel system mounts to a longboard and flexes to follow the contours of stairs and ride up curbs.

Stair Rover Skateboard 3

In addition to the original design, which fits wood boards, Lai offers an upgraded Pro version with a fiberglass deck and black components. The chassis goes to work on rough surfaces like cobblestones or uneven paving to reduce impact and prevent falls.

Stair Rover Skateboard 2

Stair Rover Skateboard 5

“Reach the top of a flight of stairs and simply keep going – let gravity and the patent-pending V-frame design do the rest. The wheels bounce up and down independently and conform to the shape of each step. It’s a balancing act that gives the board its crab-like scuttle and gives you a butter-smooth ride to the bottom.”

Stair Rover Skateboard 4

A new video of the board in action shows it navigating London landmarks like the Royal Albert Hall, Emirates Stadium and the Millennium Bridge. Currently up on Kickstarter, the project is seeking £50,000 in funding to bring the board into production. Backers donating at a certain level are pre-ordering a board before it’s available to the general public.

Share on Facebook

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Stair Rover Goes Where Other Skateboards Can’t

Posted in Creativity

 

LowePro Rover Pro 35L AW Camera Backpack [Review]

31 Jan

Finally! Finally LowePro is making backpacks that carry cameras, not camera bags that happen to be carried on your back. Not only that, the Rover Pro is a versatile bag when you aren’t carrying your camera with ample room for a long day hike. I have used this bag on a couple of short trips and a 6 mile slog through a wet and tangle arroyo and am here to report and the good and the bad.

Specifications

Capacity:

  • Pro DSLR with attached 24-70mm lens
  • 1 extra lens or flash
  • Tripod or monopod
  • 2 liter hydration reservoir
  • Sleeping pad, small tent, ice axe/trekking poles, and other personal items

Size(Interior):
5.7W X 6.2D X 12.4H in./
14.5 X 15.8 X 31.5 cm

Size(Exterior):
12.6W X 10.6D X 19.7H in./
32 X 27 X 50 cm

Weight:
5.07lbs/2.3kg

Features

The concept of the Rover Pro AW is a backpack first and a camera bag second. This works well for active photographers, but there are some snags.

First, the bag is actually two bags. The first is the main backpack body. It comes complete with full suspension system, water bladder/bottle pocket, tripod straps/sleeve, compression straps, and a couple of pockets in the back and top for odds and ends. It also has two loops for ice axes (yes, I might actually use them as such) or trekking poles.

The rear pocket is perfect sized for a guide book or iPad/tablet and the water bottle/bladder pocket comes with compression straps and a covered outlet to you’re your bladder hose. These days, that is just about required. There are small pockets on the hip belt and they will hold a memory card wallet or smart phone (my iPhone 4 fits with extra room). Although, with a phone in the hip pocket and my hands in my pants pockets, it wasn’t comfortable as the hip-belt pockets got in the way, but only with a phone in them. If you never hike with your hands in your pockets, no worries.

The suspension system is good and I was happy the waist belt reached my hips unlike many packs. I am 6’1” and often need a slightly longer pack so the weight rests on my hips and not my shoulders. This is hard to find in camera bags but the Rover Pro 35L was very comfortable in this sense. Calling it a waist belt would be wrong, I guess, it is more of a proper hip belt as that is where the weight should rest.

Inside the main compartment is a removable camera bag. It is not big, but can hold a full size DSLR with battery grip and long lens. In my case, I was able to hold a Canon 7D, grip and 28-300mm L lens. There is a slot section in the bag for memory, hard drive, flash or what not. The 45L version of this bag comes with another internal bag for a long lens. This internal bag also has elastic pouches on the outside and two zippered pockets on the inside for filters, gels, memory cards, etc… Lastly, it has a top loop and side carry handles as it can be used by itself outside the bag.

Oh, and as this is the AW (All Weather) version, it comes with a rain cover.

In Real Life

One important thing to realize about this bag, is it is not intended to be a fast action bag. It is meant to carry a lot over a long distance comfortably. Truth be told, you might be better served with your regular overnight backpack and put your camera in an insert. What this bag helps with that your overnight pack might not, is access. While it is not intended for quick access to a camera like most camera bags with their integrated organization, it does allow for either top or back panel access. From here, the camera insert bag is removed and away you go.

I would rate the 35L version as a great day trip pack and the 45L as an overnight bag, possibly. Not for winter use, but I can see how a sleeping bag, pad, and small tent can fit in an on this bag (straps on the bottom help with gear haulage). When accessing the camera insert, I often found items would shift and it would take a few extra steps to put the insert back in the main bag after shooting. This make sense and is a fair trade off for not having wasted space as you would with a integrated bag.

I thought the hip belt adjustment was lackluster. I could tighten it easily enough with the extra long pulls (good for those with a larger belly) but loosening the straps was unduly difficult and took two hands to sort of ‘jog’ the strap back. Not a deal breaker, but it can use improvement. It took me a couple of tries to figure out how to adjust the shoulder straps for my height (hint: push against the velcro hard) and I was very happy that it adjusted to my length. The metal stays and semi-rigid frame is of quality design and the ‘trmpoline’ backing did keep the pack away from my back and cool.

The zippers are average, nothing to rave about and they work. The rain cover, oh the rain cover…the rain cover finally DETACHES!! Thank you, LowePro! There is a pocket for it on the bottom of the bag and it doesn’t interfere with the bottom sleeping pad straps, which is nice. A strip of velcro helps keep the cover with the bag if you like, but once wet, the cover can be detached to dry. It also has a couple of compression straps on the top to form fit. Nice touch. I have not long term tested the cover, though.

Conclusion

When I realize how this bag is to be used, to get stuff to the shoot after a long hike over varied terrain, I appreciated it more. The camera bag is not of the quality of the f-stop bags, such as the Satori EXP, but the price is also less. While not set up for quick access, the pack does well to keep gear comfortable on my back over longer distances. The rain cover and tripod straps work well and I like that they didn’t try to make this a computer carrier too. The 35L has a lot of space and the 45L would be even larger.

Adjustable shoulder straps help this bag fit a range of torso sizes and the straps for gear are not excessive just for looks like some bags. What’s more, take the camera bag insert out and the pack functions as a very useful ‘regular’ 35L backpack for an overnight hike. I would recommend this bag for some someone wanting a more comfortable pack, but it also competes with standard, traditional day packs which can fit a right-sized camera insert. It’s not the only bag in this niche, but it does its job very well.

 

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

LowePro Rover Pro 35L AW Camera Backpack [Review]


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on LowePro Rover Pro 35L AW Camera Backpack [Review]

Posted in Photography

 

The Best Land Rover Defender 90 V8 In The UK Ever, IN ACTION!

23 Dec

Marks extremely capable V8 90 in the rough stuff, just how you like it!
Video Rating: 4 / 5

JONATHAN GAYTAN’S (COUNT THE ALLIGATOR) FIRST MUSIC VIDEO FOR SONG SECOND CHANCES! Directed by: Benjamin Eck We took a D90 to Malibu, borrowed a house from a friend and this is what we came up with. This was a test to stretch our impromptu creativity and challenge ourselves to make a cohesive video with no pre-production or concept.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

 
46 Comments

Posted in Nikon Videos

 
« Older Entries