Google Mars HiRISE base images for Opportunity Options

[elakdawalla]

Because it has become a forum FAQ, I've created this sticky thread containing information on where to obtain new base images for Opportunity's traverse for Google Mars, and for discussion on creating new ones. I will continue to add links to new base image layers to this first post as they become available.

New users: Download this 4-MB kml file and open it in Google Earth
Then go to the last post in the Opportunity Route Map thread for the latest traverse map
You need to download the new KML file each time in order to follow Opportunity's peregrinations.

Google Mars comes with a color base image mosaic created from HRSC imagery. In addition, there is an inset full-resolution HiRISE image covering the area from the landing site at Eagle crater, through Victoria, up to the point between sol 2040 and 2041 (just west of Mackinac) where Opportunity drove off the map.

Unfortunately, this Victoria crater HiRISE layer included within Google Mars is not perfectly registered to the HRSC base map. As far as is known, there is nothing to be done about that. Both John Cody's image layers and Eduardo Tesheiner's traverse maps are aligned with the inset HiRISE layer included with Google Mars, NOT to the HRSC base map.

In June 2009 SFJCody posted a reduced-resolution mosaic of HiRISE tiles that cover the entire future traverse area including Endeavour's rim. I have made some small modifications to that map and have hosted it in a single file here (17 MB). Download the file, run Google Earth, select the Mars view, and File>Open the KMZ to view it.

In September 2009 SFJCody posted another HiRISE base image, this one at full resolution, covering the Western Route and reaching not quite all the way to Santa Maria. Here is a link to the kml file (4 MB). Here is a link to a zipped version if you'd prefer to have it locally (256 MB) and I also wrote a blog entry about it.

During the discussion below, in late 2010, I created a small tile that covers just the immediate area around Santa Maria. Here is a link to the kml file covering that region.

In February 2011 Eduardo Tesheiner provided another set of base images covering the area from Santa Maria to Endeavour's rim. Here is a link to the kml file. If you would like to work from a local copy, you can download this 75 MB zip file and unzip it to a folder on your drive, then open the file PSP_010341_1775_RED.kml within it.

All three base images can be loaded at once using this kml file (the same one that is linked to at the very top of this post).

[Ross Beyer]

As I had mentioned a long, long time ago, we (the Ames Planetary Content team) were working on constructing new HiRISE/CTX overlays in the Google Earth client for the Opportunity route. We're far enough along that I want to have you guys take them for a spin so that I can get your feedback.

The attached KML file has NetworkLinks that point to our servers at Ames.

As far as geo-position goes, we decided to leave Victoria Crater where it is, and adjust the surrounding images. At some point in the future (I've been told "after the mission is over" as a time frame), there will be a giant geolocation solution by members of the MER team, at which point we'd move everything to be consistent with that, but its far enough in the future that I'm not gonna worry about it right now.

Also, the HiRISE image that covers the Endeavor rim isn't just any HiRISE image, but an ortho-image made from a HiRISE terrain model, and if things work out the way that I want them to, by the time this basemap makes it into the client (end of summer? fall at the latest, I hope), the HiRISE terrain will be in there, too.

Attached File(s)

 Opportunity_Traverse_2011.kml ( 963bytes ) Number of downloads: 1265

 

[tim53]

As I had mentioned a long, long time ago, we (the Ames Planetary Content team) were working on constructing new HiRISE/CTX overlays in the Google Earth client for the Opportunity route. We're far enough along that I want to have you guys take them for a spin so that I can get your feedback.

The attached KML file has NetworkLinks that point to our servers at Ames.

As far as geo-position goes, we decided to leave Victoria Crater where it is, and adjust the surrounding images. At some point in the future (I've been told "after the mission is over" as a time frame), there will be a giant geolocation solution by members of the MER team, at which point we'd move everything to be consistent with that, but its far enough in the future that I'm not gonna worry about it right now.

Also, the HiRISE image that covers the Endeavor rim isn't just any HiRISE image, but an ortho-image made from a HiRISE terrain model, and if things work out the way that I want them to, by the time this basemap makes it into the client (end of summer? fall at the latest, I hope), the HiRISE terrain will be in there, too.

Hi Ross:

I just completed a new basemap of CTX, MOC and HiRISE images in Arcmap that I'll be using for my localization work on Opportunity (I call this "HiThere!"). This map covers all of our traverse from Eagle Crater through Cape York, as well as all of Endeavour and Iazu Craters (since we can see so much of the interior of Endeavour, and Iazu is on our horizon). I first georeferenced the CTX low emission angle images to the HRSC and MOLA DEMs, then tied the HiRISE images to them (and each other, where they overlap). For Endeavour, there is still an annoying gap in the HiRISE coverage just east of center, so I used a couple of MOC images (3m/pixel) to fill that gap. Next step will be to correct the shading from one image to the next so the seams don't detract from the morphology. I've done this for the CTX background mosaic already, and I'm in the process of adjusting the HiRISE images. Next step will be to tile up and get the basemap into our planning software. But once that's done and the route is on it, exporting the path to applications like Google Mars ought to be straightforward. Much sooner than "after the mission is over", I'm hoping.

-Tim.

[elakdawalla]

(I call this "HiThere!")

Apart from that, I applaud the rest of your post and hope to see the product before the mission is over!

[tim53]

Apart from that, I applaud the rest of your post and hope to see the product before the mission is over!

This map is now completed. Stay tuned, as Trent Hare will be posting links to it on the USGS website.

While I consider the map "completed", I reserve the right to continue to update it as better/more images are acquired and I can georeference them to the base MOLA and HRSC topography maps. But I need to get cranking on the Gale basemap for localization and planning during Ops!

-Tim.