[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/spotlight/20050412.html

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will follow clues to where the lost Mars Polar Lander and Beagle 2 might be.

[djellison]

HiRise is a BEAST

20,000 pixels across, and images typically 40,000 pixels tall

The centre 4000 pixels is in both Red and Blue

Each pixel will be about 30cm on a side projected onto the ground - giving a typical image size of 6km x 12km

To scan a full image wont take that long - but relaying back to earth at around 1.5Mbps will take about 15-20 minutes

Doug

[dvandorn]

HiRise is a BEAST

20,000 pixels across, and images typically 40,000 pixels tall

The centre 4000 pixels is in both Red and Blue

Each pixel will be about 30cm on a side projected onto the ground - giving a typical image size of 6km x 12km

To scan a full image wont take that long - but relaying back to earth at around 1.5Mbps will take about 15-20 minutes

Doug

OK -- 30cm resolution (on average) is awesome -- that's about a one-foot resolution for those of us who don't yet think in metric, right?

How does this compare to the single-axis (push-direction) resolution of cPROTO MOC images? Since the cPROTO images have been able to resolve the MERs and the MER landers (even suggesting shape), I'd have to think that they are giving at least 50-60cm resolution, at least in one axis.

IIRC, the best Apollo pancam images of the Moon had about 2m to 3m resolution, and that was deliberately softened from the absolute capabilities of the system because DOD imposed restrictions on how good they would let ITEK make the cameras for NASA (since NASA was basically asking to use the same camera system that was flying on DOD's KH surveillance satellites at the time).

This leads to the question -- is 30cm resolution *really* the best achievable, or does DOD still refuse to allow NASA to use the *real* highest-resolution imaging systems that have been developed?

And will just asking that question impose the risk of me just disappearing somewhere into the night...?

-the othe