SOL 0 - MARDI Images Dome / Surface Installation During EDL.

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Details: Category: Mars; Written by Bobby Richardson; Hits: 2626

Most of the time, when I'm looking at pictures of Mars, I'm not 'looking for anomalies' per se, I'm just looking to see what I can see. Some of you may have noticed that NASA/JPL/MSSS doesn't always release all of the images taken on any given SOL; some will be released on one day and then, days or weeks later, more images for that particular SOL will be released.

I was reviewing SOL 0 releases "just in case", and I noticed that there's a ton of MARDI Entry, Descent and Landing images. And I think "maybe I can make an animated gif movie of the landing" (I didn't know that somebody had already done a really good, 1080P version on y/t).

Anyway, I downloaded a boatload of images and see right away that the closer the lander get's to the surface, the rustier the pictures become. Gotta clean these up.

So I pick a random image near the end of the sequence. I think of it as 'Final Approach' because the skycrane's thrusters are just about to start kicking up a lot of dust.

Raw MARDI image during EDL MARDI EDL Raw Image

and start processing by running an histogram equalization, which brought out surface detail, but also revealed all of the blocky pixelization typical of so many images released by NASA/MSSS. I can't help but note that later MARDI images, as recent as SOL 1108, don't exhibit this sort of blockiness.

MARDI EDL image with histogram equalization Histogram Equalized image
Here a closer look, tonally-smoothed and with edges softened a bit to reduce the blockiness. I doubt that sensor degradation is a likely cause.