Alien Anomalies

There is something else we can learn by studying this defect.

How did they introduce such an error?

What happened, is that they combined the images - in the wrong direction of overlap - and also failed to exclude bad data - in the form of vertical striping in the originals at the point where the two images meet.

Take a look:

The overlap points are marked in yellow - notice that they took it to the very edge by using the left most frame to overlap the right frame. They could have let the right most frame overlap the left frame - and had lots of good data to spare:



These are the left most frames at the point of overlap:

http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/mer....66r0m1.img. jpg

http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/mer....66l0m1.img. jpg

Now take a closer look at the left most frame. You can see they pushed this all the way to the edge of their frame where they have to use bad data in the form of vertical stripes running down that right edge of the image:

Of course, this leaves the totem right in the middle with bad data right beside it at the point of overlap. So, in the 3d image we have a weird effect - the software they are using to combine the data doesn't know how to handle this bad data - making it look like those rocks are closer to us, rather than on the crater wall with the rest of the rocks.

Now - check this out.

If any of us were going to produce a panoramic image here on earth, how would we do it?

We'd want nice smooth matches, so we'd mount our camera on a tripod, then move only in a panning motion from right to left (or left to right). We would not change the tilt of the camera - because if we did, re-combining the separate images would be a nightmare.

Take another look at what JPL did.

They tilted the camera as they panned (or they lowered or raised the boom on which the camera was mounted)!

We know this because the bottoms and tops don't line up - and this creates all the mismatches when you try and stitch the images together! These pans are programmed in advance - the rover is not doing this on its own.

So, why did JPL tilt the camera instead of making simple straight pans?

Was it insanity or incompetence?

I hardly think so.

Take a look again at the great amount of space in the overlap zone - marked in yellow.

These areas yield double the data as a result of the camera tilt. By tilting - it is like zooming in on the overlap areas with a zoom lens. How? NASA-Ames developed super resolution software that takes data from multiple perspectives and recombines the data - as long as the data is acquired from different angles. So, in the overlap areas - we have FOUR different angles of view to be combined into higher resolution.

We have the left image - the right image -the overlap left image taken at a different tilt - and the overlap right image taken at a different tilt.

So - in overlap areas - with the Ames software - not available to the rest of us - NASA can zoom in for a much closer view!

This means anytime JPL wants a zoomed view of a spot in the distance that the rest of us can't have, they simply have to make sure that their target falls in an overlap zone!

Looks to me as though someone bombed the hell out of that place.

thanks...so much for the help.   I will get better at posting  my links.    Its a strange and interesting world..and I am never sure if what I am seeing is not a reflection of individual vision... Out there..

Hopefully, it will be in this group:

Opportunity sol 2454 - navcam - this is the page for the 3d image, and its pair:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13757

q,

Can you see these images I am posting on imgur- below?

sorry, still a newbie