Perhaps the most amazing event last week was that we were able to help the Cornell/JPL team plan a rover drive. The Victoria Crater image was coming in, though with data transmission gaps that meant manual processing was needed. At the same time, the load on our partially-upgraded internal network and servers was approaching a crisis-level condition. The image—if we got it—was expected to be released less than 18 hours later, at a joint Rover/HiRISE press briefing, which didn’t allow much time for analysis and color processing.

Finally, it was at this moment that Steve Squyres (Principal Investigator, Mars Exploration Rovers) called our Chris Okubo and asked for whatever we had in helping plan a rover drive “right now.” Chris O. is normally the most laid back person on the team, which kind of masks the fact that he is a very sharp, hard-working geologist, and somehow also found the time to plan more HiRISE observations than anyone else, by a substantial margin. Chris was at this moment as close to agitated as I’ve ever seen him.

But with some quick work by the Downlink Operations crew (Tahirih in particular), the rover drivers were able to get what they needed, and transmit instructions that would place Opportunity closer to the edge of Victoria Crater.

It seemed to be the dramatic climax to an incredible week.

The color image of Victoria Crater, our first color image from science orbit, is stunning, check it out if you haven’t already!

Shown below is HiRISE’s eagle-eyed view of Opportunity from 168 miles above.

Jason Perry and I have been looking a bit at the HiRISE image of Victoria Crater, trying to figure out where Opportunity got stuck in April of last year. We found a map at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA07922_modest.jpg and compared it with the HiRISE image, and finally found it. I’ve attached a screenshot showing the location. It is interesting to see that the area where the rover was stuck is considerably lighter than most of the area around it, possibly from dust the rover kicked up.

My new temporary daily routine here at HiRISE Operations:

1. Validate the image data that have arrived since last time I checked. Are the raw image files we receive gap-free and are the file sizes as expected? Did the Uplink team command the HiRISE camera properly? So far, they have a perfect record!
2. Keep checking to see if new data is arriving for processing.
3. Are our automated processes running properly?
4. Is the data being stored correctly and can the team access the images in the appropriate places?
5. Finally! Actually look at the new images. In between “oohs” and “ahhs” check to see that the images look good. Did our automated software handle the data correctly? Do I need to do any manual reprocessing of image data?
6. Report my findings to the team via email.
7. Get up and see what the scientists and other team members are up to.
8. Eat some Cheetos.
9. Repeat as necessary.
10. A million other tasks.
    

By the end of the day I am covered in Cheeto dust (joking) and amazed by some new vista of Mars (seriously).

What is it we find so amazing? I can only speak for myself, but in observation TRA_000823_1720, the boulders lying about casting shadows indicate just how “Hi” resolution the HiRISE camera can go. In the second observation – TRA_000825_2665 – the stack of water ice and dust layers and the patches of water frost make for a distinctive landscape. At this resolution, there is a marked difference between the north polar region on Mars and the pictures I have seen of the Earth’s own polar regions.

To me, this is the great joy of planetary science: seeing new vistas that are at once familiar and unfamiliar, and never, ever routine.

Saturday’s front-page of the Arizona Daily Star featured a good article about HiRISE with a humorous photo of Chris S. shoulder surfing as Anjani P. worked.

This is of course a typical scene as these images are coming down. Someone will be “driving”, so to speak: browsing, “surfing”, zooming, panning, contrast stretching and more, using the amazing image processing tools that our partners at the USGS in Flagstaff have developed. And someone else (or two, or three, or a dozen) will be standing over their shoulders, watching and collaborating. Or in Chris’s case, probably making jokingly snide comments.

But it makes for a world of difference between what you, out there, the public, experience and what we experience. Bridging that gap is a challenge for our public outreach team as the mission continues. We’ve got the benefit of having the brightest minds in planetary geology offering live commentary and analysis using the finest tools and top-of-the-line workstations. The experience of seeing the image is very dynamic; jumping between resolutions, zooming in to dunes and boulders and rocky outcrops, “stretching” the image to pull out detail hidden in dark shadow or blended in on bright surfaces.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that while our excitement is evident from the posts here, communicating exactly why we’re excited is much more difficult. Unless you could be here shoulder surfing….

During the Transition Phase, we’ve been having daily “tag-up” telecons at 7:30 AM. (A telecon is a meeting held over the telephone.) It’s a chance for everyone to get on the same page, because it’s been an incredibly complicated and hectic time. We hear about any issues on the spacecraft and review past and upcoming activities. All the different teams give quick updates on their status (Navigation, Flight Engineering Team, all the instrument SOTs — Science Operations Teams — that’s us!). The telecons are usually very short and business-like, because everyone’s been so busy.

This morning, however, we got a break and didn’t have to call in until 9 AM (finally, I got to sleep in! ). When I dialed in, I thought I had called the wrong number! Everyone on the phone was laughing and joking around — very unlike any other tagup meeting I’ve attended. People were very happy and excited to finally see the data from all the instruments. Everyone has been working so hard, and this is the ultimate reward.

The teams all agreed that everything is going well. Congratulations were shared all around!

All of us at HiRISE are grateful for all the hard work the spacecraft teams have done to get us to Mars. We couldn’t do it without them!

Wow, what a day! I still can’t believe how beautiful the images are that we’ve seen today. The detail is absolutely astounding. I’m quite exhausted from all of the work that we’ve been doing to prepare for these images, but somehow I still have left-over energy from the excitement of the day. I am so happy with the images, and it’s extremely gratifying to see everyone’s hard work pay off. Congratulations HiRISE team!
I can’t wait until tomorrow when I get to see the next images that we are acquiring.

The second image has been released in its full-scale version.

I’ve had my fill of chocolate cake (delicious) and of crowds (they seemed to come in waves, and they all seemed to center around the various 30-inch monitors scattered about the Operations Center), but I have not had my fill of new images of Mars. We are seeing such amazing detail. Some people may laugh that we are excited about seeing rocks, but this new ability to see boulders from orbit is a breakthrough in Mars remote sensing. With HiRISE, we begin to bridge the gap between the imaging abilities of orbiters and those of rovers.

The full images have been filtering in over the last few minutes, here’s the operations team looking at the entire first image for the first time!

In the building we are located, there is a lobby on the ground floor. Along with most of the first set of pictures we took, there is a full scale model of the HiRISE camera, along with the HiWall, a 3×5 wall of moniters, each of which is 1600×1200 pixels, which displays some of the pictures in super high resolution, 4800×6000 pixels total.

The picture being shown currently is the part of the first image we have currently received. We still haven’t received the entire image, it is coming in soon.