MISSION UPDATES | August 24, 2012

Sol 18 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Speedy Data

Written by Ken Herkenhoff, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center


We have received all of the full-size MARDI images of MSL's descent,
and they have been combined into a video . Watching this, with the audio from the mission support area dubbed in, brought a tear to my eye. The significance of landing successfully on
Mars using an entirely new, incredibly complex system, is still
sinking in. I am very fortunate to be involved in such an endeavor.

If you are not impressed with the MARDI video, stay tuned: the images
were each heavily compressed to allow them to be transmitted to Earth
quickly. The MARDI team has started reprocessing the raw images
onboard the rover to return higher-quality versions. Of course, it
will take a while to transmit all of these larger images to Earth, but
the results will be much better than the images we have on the ground
today. This is possible because each of the color cameras has its own
memory module that is used to store raw (uncompressed) images as they
are acquired. The raw images can therefore be reprocessed as desired
and then queued up for transmission. This is obviously a nice
capability to have, but the MSL team is still learning how to best
take advantage of it. As the performance of the radio link to the
Mars orbiters continues to improve, data are being received at an
unprecedented rate, so we are reprocessing color camera images to take
advantage of the better data rate.

Ken