HiBlog, The HiRISE Blog Options

[tuvas]

Another great article - this on HiStitch....

Tell you want I would like to read in the HiBlog - cold hard figures on the size of the downlink for some of these images as a total data product...and how that's best expressed in terms of the length of downlink time needed.

Also - one thing that would be VERY cool - a total image counter....how many images have been taken in total.....and...did you get anything interesting from the ride-along during Deimos calib

I must say - blogs and 'casts of various sorts really do bring this stuff to life for the enthused viewer/reader - kudos to the team for doing it.

Doug

If we had a total image counter, then everyone'd know just how many images we haven't released... Although it's a fair bit more than have been released, I'll keep the exact number to myself (Also because it changes every few hours...)

The raw data output for a typical image is in the 1G range, depending on the compression scheme used, and the size of the image. Maybe I'll talk with the uplink team and make sure it's okay, but give some rough figures for the total data output per week, or at least an estimate.

As for interesting stuff in the Deimos cal, well, one might guess if there was anything interesting to post, that it'd have been done already.

[Mark Rejhon]

Another regular HiBlog reader here.
(That blog needs to be more well known! The regular NASA site is a little dry on MRO updates.)

I am looking forward to JFIF download support. There are often times I want to download just a tiny part of many of these beautiful gigapixel images. It's the first time I've seen JPEG's (non-JPEG2000) easily break a current high end system and forces us to adopt JPEG2000.

I don't think anybody working with the Mars rovers imagined that they would survive long enough to have MRO actually help plan their activities!

I also look forward to photos of crash landed space probes too - Polar Lander, Beagle 2 - I'm sure these are not high priorities right now, but I imagine you've already got these on your HiRISE targetting wishlist :-) I understand their locations may be uncertain (but I do recall semi-conclusive candidate images were taken, with resolution too low to be conclusive, those could simply be retargetted with MRO to confirm...)

EDIT:
- I'd love to see bandwidth statistics. Are you managing to reach multi-megabit speeds with the big dish? How did the team adjust bandwidth towards the end of solar conjunction; what download speeds are you able to achieve right now?

- Also, if you are familiar with the error correcting codecs of MRO, I have additional questions:
... Have MRO engaged Turbo Code (one of the advanced error correction methods available to MRO transmissions, according to specifications) transmissions yet, and how well do they perform?
... Why is the specifications of Turbo Code transmissions lower than the downlink's maximum speed spec (I think I read some figure such as 1.5 megabits per second a couple months ago, correct?
... If these are classified information, I understand, but I always have an interest in networking technologies. To the best of my knowledge, it is the first time that a multimegabit broadband connection to Mars is being successfully established...

[tuvas]

Another regular HiBlog reader here.
(That blog needs to be more well known! The regular NASA site is a little dry on MRO updates.)

I am looking forward to JFIF download support. There are often times I want to download just a tiny part of many of these beautiful gigapixel images. It's the first time I've seen JPEG's (non-JPEG2000) easily break a current high end system and forces us to adopt JPEG2000.

I don't think anybody working with the Mars rovers imagined that they would survive long enough to have MRO actually help plan their activities!

I also look forward to photos of crash landed space probes too - Polar Lander, Beagle 2 - I'm sure these are not high priorities right now, but I imagine you've already got these on your HiRISE targetting wishlist :-) I understand their locations may be uncertain (but I do recall semi-conclusive candidate images were taken, with resolution too low to be conclusive, those could simply be retargetted with MRO to confirm...)

Thanks for the comments. It's JPIP by the way, not JFIF. HiRISE is re-defining the term "Very Large Image", we've managed to crash numerous hard drives, find RAM problems, countless plugins or programs for viewing JP2 images, network problems, and I don't even know what else, all just here at HiROC. We've gotten these problems mostly taken care of (Except for the problems beyond our control), and things will be better with HiView, but still, it's been quite a ride!

As for finding other spacecraft, well, we will eventually get to taking pictures to try and find MPL and Beagle. Give it some time, and we'll get there...

[tuvas]

The HiAddict, renamed by GuyMac as HiFan, has been posted to the HiBlog, and there's even a mention of UMSF there.

[djellison]

HiFive for the kudos

Doug

[tuvas]

There's a couple of new things up on the HiBlog, one of them being the statistics of the number of images taken. It's actually quite interesting, I highly recommend it.

[tuvas]

The HiBlog now features two "HiJinks", or April Fools Day jokes done by HiRISE people, including "The Other Face on Mars". Check it out!