Tom - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter question

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by emanuel</i>
<br />it is not obvious that the progression from unfiltered through each of the steps has not included some bias towards artificiality. What did the three individuals actually do to the unflitered photo during each of these steps?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">Details as they were written up at the time are presented in the article at metaresearch.org/solar%20system/cydonia/proof_files/proof.asp
The three individual imaging experts can still be contacted with questions. But they were using recognized techniques available to anyone with the MGS and Viking images and Adobe Photoshop. They altered the lighting and viewing perspective without changing the image content. (I.e., no artistic enhancement -- see footnote at that link.)

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">"yeah I could apply some 'advanced image processing' too, and make it look like anything I wanted."<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">Contrast the job done by our professional helpers with what JPL's MIPL (Mission Image Processing Lab) did to get the image released to the world press. Click or type the following link:
www.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/target/CYD1/index.html
then manually alter the first element of this link from "www" to "mpfwww". (This Message Board's software, and many other software programs, will not allow direct entry of the real link. So this manual step is required. One might even get the idea that JPL didn't want this link to get around much. [}])

The referenced web page shows the raw strip image for the 1998 Cydonia Face, then the MIPL version released to the media, and finally a properly processed version by TJP. Then at the bottom of the page, you find a recipe for the MIPL version. Basically, they put the raw image through a low-pass filter to remove high-frequency detail. Then they put the raw image through a high-pass filter to remove low-frequency detail. Then they averaged the two.

They did indeed "make it look like anything they wanted", wouldn't you agree? -|Tom|-

The first calibration images from MRO were posted on the web today.

[url] marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/gallery/calibration/ [/url]

Even at 10 times the final target altitude the resolution is very good. It doesn't say what coordinates were imaged, so I guess a side by side comparison with images from previous missions (to get a better idea of the improvement) aren't possible at this time. Hopefully the final resolution will be good enough to put the artificiality of various sites to rest in a year or so.

JR

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by jrich</i>
<br />Hopefully the final resolution will be good enough to put the artificiality of various sites to rest in a year or so.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">Or put the natural origin hypothesis to rest, as the case may be. [] -|Tom|-

According to Nerikes Allehanda (a local swedish newspaper) the photos were taken from a height of 2490Km.
The photos will now be used to calibrate the cameras so they can work properly when the orbiter reaches its planned elvation.

The newspaper also states that the orbiter will tale photos of 1% of the surface in order to prepare better for future missions. 1% sounds like a small amount to me, I sure hope that is just the planned mission and the orbiter will then keep taking photos (hopefully of the Cydonia region).

Two difference hypothesis’s clash together and one will walk out in favor, Science at its best. Either way, I’m thrilled about it

You know, this is where the activist in me comes out. It would be a terrible loss if they did not photograph cydonia. We should organize a public campaign to put friendly pressure on NASA. Letter writing, stories to the media, etc. There's plenty of time to prepare.

We will only have ourselves to blame if this window opens and closes with no new photos.

Emanuel

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by PheoniX_VII</i>
The newspaper also states that the orbiter will tale photos of 1% of the surface in order to prepare better for future missions. 1% sounds like a small amount to me, I sure hope that is just the planned mission and the orbiter will then keep taking photos (hopefully of the Cydonia region).<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
The orbiter is scheduled to start a one year science mission after solar conjunction in November, 2006. It will circle Mars 12 times a day in an almost polar orbit. After a year the ground tracks it has imaged will cover the entire planet, but each track (anyone know how wide each track will be?) will be separated from the adjacent ones by about 5km.

Starting in December, 2007 the orbiter will end its science phase (unless more funding is forthcoming) and instead be used as a communications relay for other missions that will begin arriving. This will last 2 years until 2010. However, the orbiter has fuel to maintain orbit until 2015, so with sufficient funding its science mission could probably be extended 7 years past the planned 1 year which would allow more than enough time to image every square meter of Mars.

Details are here [url] marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/mission/tl_science_orbit.html [/url], [url] marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/mission/tl_science.html [/url], and [url] marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/mission/tl_relay.html [/url]

JR