[X] My Assistant

[AdrianC]

Hello everybody.
I have been reading this forum for quite a while now (8 months+) but never got the nerve and data to actually contribute.
Let me start off by asking everybody two questions.

"What do you think about a high quality remasterization of MSL's MARDI descent and landing imagery?"

"Is it worth the effort having a higher resolution, higher frame rate version of the descent?"

Obviously i'm talking about a high quality remasterization (details will follow). My background is in digital visual effects (VFX) to be more specific 10 years in matchmoving, this involves advanced photogrammetry knowledge, and digital compositing.

Final results will be:
-a minimum horizontal resolution of 2.6K
-25 to 60 fps (TBD)
-derived telemetry overplayed on imagery and current stage (ex. heat shield separation, engines)
-original radio comms as sound.

I am aware of the fact that such attempts already exist (here). This is just a mere optic flow interpolation which dose not do any justice to the mission.

The simplified roadmap is:
-I will use HI-Rise data to create a digital elevation map then convert to a polygonal mesh
-Compute absolute position of each MARDI frame
-Camera project on the ground geometry a series of MARDI frames. Each temporal sample will contribute to a higher resolution image by stacking it on the ground geometry.
-Final rendering will be based ONLY on MARDI data. Interpolation between camera positions will be as physically accurate as possible.

This is no easy task, my estimate is about 40-100 hours of work minimum and lots of data missing.There will be some programming, some small tool developement. But since next month I will be out of a job (corporate financial problems) I thought I might ask you guys about the possible interest of this project.

PS If i posted in the wrong section, I ask the moderators to kindly help me.

[mcaplinger]

This is no easy task, my estimate is about 40-100 hours of work minimum and lots of data missing.

At MSSS I've considered doing something similar, but I think this is an underestimate of the level of effort required, and IMHO perhaps past the point of diminishing returns. We have a better-interpolated version of the sequence than anything I've seen on youtube (but still done with optical flow), but I'm not sure when or if it will be released.

You will also find that the terminal descent part of the sequence, with its dust and flying rocks, is a completely different problem than the rest of the sequence (and managing the heat shield is also pretty different.)

[xflare]

We have a better-interpolated version of the sequence than anything I've seen on youtube (but still done with optical flow), but I'm not sure when or if it will be released.

oh? Why's that?

[mcaplinger]

Many reasons, but mostly because it's old news at this point so there's little urgency, the approval process for us to release something is not completely straightforward, and there's some hope that the product could be improved -- for one thing, by inclusion of unreleased EDL telemetry as a graphic overlay or something.

Recall that the final Huygens descent movie wasn't released for something like 5 years after the event.

[MahFL]

Also to the general public it will look exactly the same...