Scientists have confirmed that the first zoomable camera on Mars has been in top-of-the-line form since they came on board NASA’s Perseverance rover in February, adding a long-range recording capability to the robot’s scientific toolkit.
The zoomable image tool, which actually consists of two almost identical cameras to provide stereo views, is now ready to record a high-definition video of the Ingenuity helicopter’s first flight into the Mars atmosphere later this month .
The Mastcam Z instrument (the Z stands for Zoom) is an upgraded version of the cameras on the mast of NASA’s Curiosity rover, which offers the ability to focus and zoom on rocks over the Martian surface.
Within days of Perseverance landing on February 18, Mastcam-Z took photos with various zoom settings. Jim Bell, principal investigator of Mastcam-Z at Arizona State University, said last month that it was very exciting to use the tool early in the mission to prove that everything works as expected.
“It’s clear that members of the science team are drooling over all these images very quickly,” Bell said on March 16 during a presentation at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Scientists used the Mastcam-Z cameras to take pictures of a calibration target to confirm the instrument’s settings, and then took a wide-angle and telephoto view of the surrounding landscape at Jezero Crater, Perseverance’s landing site. captured.
Mastcam-Z takes photos that scientists can put together on Earth to create mosaics, offering high-resolution 360-degree panoramic views of the horizon, with a 180-degree face plane from right to upright. The cameras have an effective focal length ranging from 26 millimeters to 110 millimeters.
Bell said the science team tested Mastcam-Z’s resolution by pointing the cameras at the rocks of Mars. Fully zoomed in, the cameras can solve functions as small as the tip of a pencil near the rover, or as small as an almond from a soccer field, scientists said.
“We can do that in stereo, too,” Bell said. “We are adjusting the eyes from wide angle to telephoto, which is an advancement in terms of what the Mastcam can do on Curiosity,” Bell said. “But the system is very, very similar, also designed and built in collaboration and working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.”
Mastcam-Z’s cameras have color filters that can give scientists tips on the composition of distant rocks. Bell compares Mastcam-Z’s role on the mission as ‘triage’ to help the Rover Science team choose targets for higher fidelity spectrometers and other instruments.
With its highest zoom setting, Mastcam-Z could see details at the edge of delta deposits deposited by a dried-up river that flowed into a lake that filled Jezero Crater billions of years ago. The delta sediments, more than a mile from the current location of the Rover, are a primary target for perseverance, and scientists hope to find signatures of ancient life there.
“We will eventually get closer to it and of course get better resolution than we get,” Bell said. At the current distance of the rover, a few miles from the delta, Bell said Mastcam-Z can solve features the size of a basketball to a beach ball.
Bell said Mastcam-Z will be used for science and rover.
“We do all kinds of geomorphology, geology, atmospheric science, some astronomical observations … multispectral imaging for science, but we also do a lot of engineering support for management and (robotic) arm placement and helicopter operations,” Bell said.
Mastcam-Z can also record high-definition videos, which Bell’s ability will use later this month on test flights of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter.
The Perseverance rover released the 1.8-kilogram (4-pound) rotor vessel on the Martian surface on Saturday, offering first place in up to five proven flights on April 11th.
The rover itself will drive to an observation post, almost a soccer field away from the helicopter’s flight zone. Drivers want to ensure that the experimental drone, which will attempt the first powered flight into the atmosphere of another planet, does not endanger the $ 2.4 billion rover.
“We plan to use our video capability and telephoto capabilities because we have to give up a lot of the helicopter,” Bell said. ‘But we’ll definitely be making videos with the helicopter’s Mastcam-Z. It’s going to be very exciting, and we’re looking forward to those really historic first aviation films. ”
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