[meteorite-list] Panorama From NASA Mars Rover Shows Mount Sharp

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:48:14 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201303152048.r2FKmEd7000400_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-097
 
Panorama From NASA Mars Rover Shows Mount Sharp
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 15, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. -- Rising above the present location of NASA's Mars
rover Curiosity, higher than any mountain in the 48 contiguous states of
the United States, Mount Sharp is featured in new imagery from the rover.

A pair of mosaics assembled from dozens of telephoto images shows Mount
Sharp in dramatic detail. The component images were taken by the
100-millimeter-focal-length telephoto lens camera mounted on the right
side of Curiosity's remote sensing mast, during the 45th Martian day of
the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 20, 2012).

This layered mound, also called Aeolis Mons, in the center of Gale
Crater rises more than 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the crater floor
location of Curiosity. Lower slopes of Mount Sharp remain a destination
for the mission, though the rover will first spend many more weeks
around a location called "Yellowknife Bay," where it has found evidence
of a past environment favorable for microbial life.

A version of the mosaic that has been white-balanced to show the terrain
as if under Earthlike lighting, which makes the sky look overly blue, is
at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16768. White-balanced
versions help scientists recognize rock materials based on their
terrestrial experience. The Martian sky would look like more of a
butterscotch color to the human eye. A version of the mosaic with raw
color, as a typical smart-phone camera would show the scene, is at
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16769.

In both versions, the sky has been filled out by extrapolating color and
brightness information from the portions of the sky that were captured
in images of the terrain.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity and the
rover's 10 science instruments to investigate environmental history
within Gale Crater, a location where the project has found that
conditions were long ago favorable for microbial life.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the Mast
Camera (Mastcam) instrument. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission
Directorate, Washington, and built the rover.

For more information about the mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl
and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

Follow the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2012-097
Received on Fri 15 Mar 2013 04:48:14 PM PDT