MAHLI For MSL

From the Malin Space Science Systems website.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 24 October 2008
MSSS DELIVERS “HAND LENS” SCIENCE CAMERA TO JPL FOR 2009 MARS ROVER MISSION
Malin Space Science Systems, Inc. (MSSS), has delivered the second of four science cameras it is developing for the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover mission. This camera, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI—see Figure 1) is designed to provide close up color images of rocks and soils on the martian surface. The camera will be mounted on the end of the rover’s robotic arm, and positioned as close as an inch from its targets, allowing it to acquire in situ images of rock textures at scales much finer than ever before.

News release HERE


The MAHLI Camera




Large image HERE


With this camera, some very impressive close-up shots can be obtained of all those rocks on Mars, perhaps we might find embedded fossils in them and can get very clean images of them that can look like this...




Large image HERE

I wonder what else they will see with this very impressive camera.


Cheers!!!!

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[edit on 5/12/08 by Jbird]

i wonder if there is any specific reason for choosing the shell fossil to be in that picture...it's interesting because Zorgon here on ATS has posted excellent pictures of this kind of fossil being found already on mars...i think that it is no coinincidence...maybe they are SLOWLY beginning to drip feed us into the notion of at least PAST life on mars. Good post, i stared and flaged it, you did good on this one.

here's the pictures from Zorgons thread...i'm not derailing yours OP, i think it's cool that they chose that picture to show us, doesn't it look kinda like this?


now highlighted:


this one is EXACTLY the same type as the one in your pic OP:


now highlighted:











Zorgon origional post can be found here

good job OP, my jaw dropped when i saw thhem using that tortella as an example. let's hope this camera holds true to what they say and brings back pictures that at the very least rival my handheld i got for 100 bucks.

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[edit on 5/12/08 by Jbird]

Ive seen those images too, not necessarily Zorgon's but from the NASA sites and a few other research websites.

But see how fuzzy those are? With this new camera, we should get nice sharp images of these fossils and maybe even see some detail on them that perhaps may provide us the means to see if they may be related to some fossils here on Earth. That would open the door to the theory that maybe the life that was once on Mars was not too different from the life here in those years it exsisted on Mars.


Cheers!!!!

[edit on 5-12-2008 by RFBurns]

reply to post by Enigma Publius


Thank you. I searched in case there was already a post on the new MAHLI camera for the MSL rover. Didnt find any reference to it. Note the news release on this is dated October 24. So the camera is very new and only recently had gone through testing. It is now on its way to be integrated into the MSL rover.

With the improved data systems on the rover, we should get some very nice clean images. They intend to point this camera very close to the target and lit up with its on-board LED lights.



Cheers!!!!

[edit on 5-12-2008 by RFBurns]

reply to post by Enigma Publius


I was also surprised to see they used the particular photo in the news release with the shell fossil because I had seen the others before too and that kind of hinted to me that they want to get better images of the fossils on Mars for comparison to what can be found here on Earth.

The spiral fossil shells on the older pics and the sample pic from the news release do look very similar dont they! I think someone at NASA wants not only a better look at them, but since they intend to have this camera up to 1 inch away from the target, they want to focus in on detail. It must be so that they can see if there are recognizable similarities between those fossils on Mars and ones here on Earth.



Cheers!!!!

Some more data/technical specifications on the MAHLI MSL camera.

From the NASA JPL website:

The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is a focusable color camera located on the turret at the end of the MSL robotic arm. The instrument acquires images of up to 1600 by 1200 pixels with a color quality equivalent to that of consumer digital cameras. The table below summarizes the basic characteristics of the instrument.


Article HERE


Technical specs:
(from same article page)




Another picture sample but from the prototype camera, not the actual camera that will be installed on the MSL rover:
(also from the same article page)




"Look at the size of that thing!!!" (Star Wars IV-A New Hope)






I cant wait to see this thing in action!!!



Cheers!!!!

[edit on 5-12-2008 by RFBurns]


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[edit on 5/12/08 by Jbird]

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Too bad the mission was rescheduled for 2011...

Press release

And I don't think the photos from the rovers show any fossil, bad that is a different story.

reply to post by RFBurns

wish i could star and flag this 2 or three times. IF they send back more blurry grainy pictures of stuff that MIGHT be fossils but we can't tell, i will reference people to this page that clearly shows the specs and what this camera should be able to do. good work on this burnsey!
i wish i knew more about what those numbers mean in the specs. i am not very educated in camera lingo, and some of those figures escape my reckoning. i don't know what they mean really. could you help me out there?
respectfully,
publius

[edit on 7-12-2008 by Enigma Publius]

[edit on 7-12-2008 by Enigma Publius]

reply to post by Enigma Publius


The specifications of the cameras are not the most important thing, most people talk about "blurry and grainy pictures" without knowing the specs of the cameras that took those photos.

This camera it's just the result of some more years (maybe 7 or 8) in development of the techniques used.

Comparing it with a common consumer camera, this camera is 1.8 Mega-pixel camera (the cameras on the rovers are 0.25 Mega-pixel), it will not use different (out of the camera) filters as the rovers cameras, it uses a filter on the sensor itself, just like the common digital cameras, and it will be capable of focusing from around 2 mm to infinity (a consumer camera can usually focus from 5 cm to infinity).

We have to wait two more years than expected (unless they cancel the mission, but I find that unlikely), but time will pass, as it always do.

reply to post by ArMaP


Ya I kinda got a little ticked about the announcement of the delay. I hope it isnt just some lame excuse. But as you said, the time will go by and before we know it, MSL will be up there with this awsome camera taking some nice sharp pictures. And even if they do wait till 2011, no telling what kind of improvements will be made on the camera and the data aquisition/transmission gear too that can guarantee clean images.


Cheers!!!!