Mars Rover Blog and Forum

sol 2947 ( May 9, 2012 ):

Oppy moved about 3 meters away from Greeley Haven, so I don't think this was just a "bump".

We're underway again, so it's time for a new volume.

Here is the previous volume.

In case you missed it on the last volume:

see reply 700 for comments.

Read the content, and please comment further.
Thanks
.
[link]
.

It is apparent to me the the asteroid belt used to be a complete celestial body at one time. Something caused it to break up. When it broke up, it may had been the reason why Mars lost its atmosphere. Does anyone know the complete mass of all the asteroids in the belt? How is it comparable to Earths mass? If the total mass of the belt is much larger than Mars', then maybe Mars was once the moon of the former body that now makes up the asteroid belt. I'm looking forward to replies to this post

http://www.marssociety.org/convention2012

The annual Mars Society "Con" is in Pasadena in August this year. Highlight will be the landing of MSL on the final evening of the convention. Call for papers and registration at the above site.

Indulge yourself in this wonderful video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76PXZp0shLA&feature=youtu.be

According to

AFM MEASRUREMENTS OF MARTIAN SOIL PARTICLES.

U. Staufer, et al., in

http://www.nbi.ku.dk/forskningsgrupper/mars/soil-workshop/BookOfAbstracts_MarsMicroStructure.pdf

Quotes:

"The AFM of the MECA instrument suit has executed 85 experiments of which 26 were needed for calibration and for initially defining operational parameters. Of the remaining experiments about half (2 returned images where at least a signature of particles could be discerned."

"In many cases, the digital feedback was saturated and the only or main information returned was found in the error signal."

There are two images shown.

There is a more recent 2011 paper:

Remote Nanoimaging on Mars - Results of the Atomic Force Microscope Onboard NASA's Phoenix Mission, by S Gautsch, et al.

but it is behind a pay wall and not even an abstract is available.

I get the impression from the sparsity of publications that overall FAMARS was not very successful.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47031923/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Ok, with two people now officially requesting help using imagej to process MER images, so it is time for this topic.

I will assume that you have downloaded and installed imagej and that you have downloaded some raw MER image data from somewhere. For example, you can get images from the official MER site or from the Exploratorium site.

To test your imagej install you can use the three images below:

sol 2917 L4:

sol 2917 L5:

sol 2917 L6:

OK, now that you have downloaded the test filter images to a convenient directory ( folder ), start the program imagej.

Click on the menu item File / Open... and navigate to the directory where you saved the test images.

Select the L4 image. It should appear in a separate window. Repeat the File/Open... for the L5 and the L6 images.

You should now have the L4, L5 and L6 images open.

Now click on the menu item Image / Color / Merge Channels...

The color Merge window should have the L4 image file name in the Red: input box and the L5 and L6 files in the Green: and Blue: boxes. The Grey: box should be *None*.

Make sure the Create Composit: check box is checked OFF. ( ie, no checkmark in the box )

If you don't want the source images automatically closed after the color image is created click "on" the Keep Source Images box.

Finally, click the OK button and you should now see a window with this image:

Congratulations! You have just created your first MER false color image!

Now, select the menu item File / Save.

Give the color image a suitable name ( I use the name of the L4 file with "56" added after the "L4". ) and save it somewhere.

In the future I will post the command sequences as imagej macros and you can copy and paste the commands from the comments to a macro and run the macro to process the images.

For example, here is the commands for my macro L234567x2mx-3 that produces three images from all the left pancam filters:

------------------------------------------

run("16-bit");
run("Put Behind [tab]");
run("16-bit");
run("Put Behind [tab]");
run("16-bit");
run("Put Behind [tab]");
run("16-bit");
run("Put Behind [tab]");
run("16-bit");
run("Put Behind [tab]");
run("16-bit");
NT=getTitle();
NT=substring(NT,0,lengthOf(NT)- ;
run("Images to Stack");
run("Multiply...", "stack value=255.000");
run("Scale...", "x=2 y=2 width=640 height=544 interpolate process create title=Stack-1");
run("Z Project...", "start=1 stop=3 projection=[Min Intensity]");
selectWindow("Stack-1");
run("Z Project...", "start=4 stop=4 projection=[Min Intensity]");
selectWindow("Stack-1");
run("Z Project...", "start=5 stop=6 projection=[Max Intensity]");
run("Images to Stack");
rename("RGB");
selectWindow("Stack");
close();
selectWindow("Stack-1");
close();
run("Stack to RGB");
rename("L234567x2");
selectWindow("RGB");
run("Square Root", "stack");
run("Multiply...", "stack value=255.000");
run("Stack to RGB");
rename("L234567x2sqt");
selectWindow("RGB");
close();
run("Duplicate...", "title=L234567x2sqt-1");
run("Multiply...", "value=0.667");
selectWindow("L234567x2");
run("Duplicate...", "title=L234567x2-1");
run("Multiply...", "value=0.333");
imageCalculator("Add create", "L234567x2sqt-1","L234567x2-1");
//run("Image Calculator...", "image1=L234567x2sqt-1 operation=Add image2=L234567x2-1 create");
rename(NT+"L234567x2hdr");
selectWindow("L234567x2sqt-1");
close();
selectWindow("L234567x2-1");
close();
selectWindow("L234567x2sqt");
rename(NT+"L234567x2sqt");
selectWindow("L234567x2");
rename(NT+"L234567x2");

-------------------------------------

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103512000723

Spirit still inspiring discoveries.

I was just pondering our Grandeur. We sit eating a sandwich while Curiosity heads through space toward Mars. We will all hold our breath as the air crane does its job, an engineering feat no doubt. Thank God it was not a "rock guy." Leonardo would be proud.

I was thinking of Hort's recent illness and those like Henry who just up and was gone. So I will give Hort some flowers from us all. Thanks for making it and coming back Hort, for a while longer. Our physical entity is just for a while.

Serpens, Thanks for being a good rock guy. I don't agree with you. I think you are shallow but, such are "rock guys." You are part of the Mars Rover Blog now, cognates. It is a small fraternity.
Thanks to you all.

Fred, aka Darwin

Guys have a look at this, one of my fellow telescopes slaves captured what seems to be a very high cloud, see 1 o'clock postion on this animation.

Your thoughts?

http://exosky.net/exosky/?p=1606

.

.
HiRISE images, both years past and current, show a combination of dark streaks, desert or dust 'devils', and topography matching patterns of alterations, or erosion in some areas of Mars.
In this release, PSP_004115_1145, the science thene is stated as Glacial/Periglacial, yet it is the dark streaks mathing surface 3D features appearing to be dust devil tracks in simple view.
In othe images, even the scalloped terrain has matching dark streaks and terrain relief.
A topic for the public and professionals to study and debate.

I am keeping this subject simple to lower the risk of hijacking.

This had to be posted what a shot! Up there with the avalanche you just have to be in the right place at the right time for this.

BTW observing Mars through telescopes at the moment shows that there is quite a bit of cloud around the equater as well as the poles and the Hellas Basin is full of cloud and fog. Northern Ice Cap seems to be shrinking so perhaps the transfer of the vapour from the melting cap from north to south is under way.

Ben (& Bill). I think it is probably a good idea to start up a new thread on what what been found at CY and the possible spring campaign. Hopefully limiting the scope will limit the hijacking.

I am in the process of reviewing the information and there is more than I realized.
The other Forum has some good references and as soon as I get all the data sorted out will present some observations which may be contrary and will hopefully stir up conversation.

We have some good minds in the OMF and I hope they will participate