Mission controllers calibrate Curiosity’s camera by using a “lucky penny” on the rover’s mast.
“When a geologist takes pictures of rock outcrops she is studying, she wants an object of known scale in the photographs,” said Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Principal Investigator Ken Edgett, of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego.
This weekend mission controllers had Curiosity flip open the dust cap covering the robotic-arm mounted MAHLI, and Presto! No more fuzzy photos!
Think of MAHLI as the equivalent of a geologist’s magnifying lens, but infinitely more complicated. Its high-resolution capabilities can focus and magnify objects smaller than the width of a human hair.
Curiosity’s robotic arm angled the camera underneath the rover for a photo of the rolling chem lab’s lower front and under belly areas.
The MAHLI lens, dust cap in place, in the center of the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm Two LED lights on either side of the lens illuminate samples.
MAHLI has both white light sources as found in a flashlight and ultraviolet light sources found in tanning lamps, enabling it to create images both day and night. The ultraviolet light will induce fluorescence to detect carbonate and evaporite minerals, both indicators that water may have helped to shape the Martian landscape.
The ground immediately in front of the rover. Mission scientists speculate about the large pebble in the bottom right having affected the wind blowing around it to remove surface dust.
Sources: DiscoveryNews, September 10, 2012 Space.com, September 10, 2012 NASA.gov, September 10, 2012 Daily MailOnline, September 10, 2012 All photo credits NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems
