# Quick Curiosity images qustions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 9, 2012, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938 "2012-08-09T07:14:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938/1 "2012-08-09T07:14:37Z")
1. This is a silly question, but I can’t figure out how this descent [image of the heat shield](http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/innovations/Images/Mars_Curiosity_0259a-333.jpg?uuid=p3WD2uGrEeGY54nWWfnBBg)was taken. The shield is at the bottom, right? So how was this photo taken? 2. There must be a site for constant updates of images coming from the rover? I’m guessing it’s at JPL. but I get lost in the maze there. Does anyone have the URL? 3. Finally, from [the same report,](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/mars-rover-curiosity-delivers-new-high-res-images-offers-fresh-view-of-planetary-neighbor/2012/08/08/7afb7c64-e170-11e1-98e7-89d659f9c106_blog.html)in the image below the “3-D” color-pair one (which I’ll never see, :(), is that a logo (for what,? whom?) of the lander itself, in abstract style? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938/2 "2012-08-09T07:43:11Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > 1. This is a silly question, but I can’t figure out how this descent [image of the heat shield](http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/innovations/Images/Mars_Curiosity_0259a-333.jpg?uuid=p3WD2uGrEeGY54nWWfnBBg)was taken. The shield is at the bottom, right? So how was this photo taken? That’s a picture of the inside of the heat shield, as it fell away, immediately after detachment. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938/3 "2012-08-09T07:48:11Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > 1. Finally, from [the same report,](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/mars-rover-curiosity-delivers-new-high-res-images-offers-fresh-view-of-planetary-neighbor/2012/08/08/7afb7c64-e170-11e1-98e7-89d659f9c106_blog.html)in the image below the “3-D” color-pair one (which I’ll never see, :(), is that a logo (for what,? whom?) of the lander itself, in abstract style? It’s clearly a stylised picture of the rover, but it has the look of a simple 2D barcode - maybe it has secondary usage as a datum for positioning camera booms or something. Or maybe it’s a nod to the [Arecibo Message](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938/4 "2012-08-09T07:50:06Z")
::sigh:: It’s my damn one eye thing again. I always am confused by conves/concave, which look the same to me. But this is a photo…Would other people make that mistake? (Anyway, this is a hijack of my own thread…) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938/5 "2012-08-09T07:55:45Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It’s clearly a stylised picture of the rover, but it has the look of a simple 2D barcode - maybe it has secondary usage as a datum for positioning camera booms or something. > > Or maybe it’s a nod to the [Arecibo Message](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message) Interesting point. There’s a thread now on the Voyager plaque. Maybe you or I should throw that one in to mix it up. What has interested me, and is less well-known, is the US Government project for signage at the nuclear waste sites, to warn off people thousands of years from now of some unknown culture and language to stay away from various perimeters. I lost the cite at the moment, and I have to sign off to sleep. But it’s a pisser. Going to throw that into the mix at the Voyager plaque thread too. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938/6 "2012-08-09T08:12:02Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > ::sigh:: > > It’s my damn one eye thing again. I always am confused by conves/concave, which look the same to me. > > But this is a photo…Would other people make that mistake? (Anyway, this is a hijack of my own thread…) It’s not at all uncommon in images where the direction of the light source isn’t immediately obvious (and there’s a very famous illusion called the [Hollow Face](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow-Face_illusion)that exploits this trick of human perception). A lot of the nuttier stuff on the web, concerning supposed anomalies and artifacts on the Moon and Mars, etc. is often based on misinterpretation of shadows (craters look like mushrooms, gullies look like raised ‘worms’, etc) ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938/7 "2012-08-09T11:50:57Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > 1. This is a silly question, but I can’t figure out how this descent [image of the heat shield](http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/innovations/Images/Mars_Curiosity_0259a-333.jpg?uuid=p3WD2uGrEeGY54nWWfnBBg)was taken. The shield is at the bottom, right? So how was this photo taken? The photo of the heat shield was taken by the MARDI descent camera, one of the four cameras on board. [Here’s an interesting article](http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/08/08/Curiosity-interview-with-Malin-Space-Science-Systems-Mike-Ravine) about the cameras, which, by the way, each have only a 2MP sensor. ---
**Author:** ![Ionizer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Ionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ionizer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938/8 "2012-08-09T11:54:14Z")
For LOTS of technical info on the pics, you can go to [unmannedspaceflight.com](http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7397&st=630) which has many posters who actually drive the rover(s) and also post the most current images from the several repositories of HiRISE and other cameras present on Mars. Another great place to look for the ‘how’ of the images is [Emily Lakdawalla](http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/)’s blog at Planetary Society. Not sure if Emily still does it, but I have attended one of her online lessons (live) on how to process the imagery data from the ‘raw’ sources’ (and making anaglyphs, etc). She knows her stuff - scooped Carolyn Porco once, on something from Cassini 😉 HUGE amount of info at UMSF, fwiw, for those wanting to know as much detail as possible or want to ask those who are paid to work with the data/equipment of MSL (Curiousity, per se). Links to the many image-storage sites are all over the threads, too. One guy made a custom browser for, iirc, Phoenix’s stuff which auto-grabbed the newest images and such. Was a beautiful way to look at the data, too. Have ya seen the[image](http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=27383)(s) that show the blast(s) of the crane platform practically right next to Curiousity? Or the [one](http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7397&st=585) of where the platform crashed/burned? Neat stuff being imaged right next to her - wish there was imagery from surface of its landing! Hope this helps get ya closer to all the imagery you do not have time to peruse 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938/9 "2012-08-09T13:09:36Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > 1. There must be a site for constant updates of images coming from the rover? I’m guessing it’s at JPL. but I get lost in the maze there. Does anyone have the URL? [http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/](http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-curiosity-images-qustions/630938/10 "2015-10-13T15:06:28Z")
A very happy zombie–listen to the cheers again–walks because all the hi-res images of the descent were (re?)-released today–perhaps for the first time in sequence–by JPL: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTdzgiLpQIQ)