Recent Mastcam and MAHLI Visible/Near-Infrared Spectrophotometric Observations: Pahrump Hills to Marias Pass

Abstract:

The Mastcam imaging system on the Curiosity rover continued acquisition of multispectral images of the same terrain at multiple times of day at three new rover locations between sols 872 and 1003. These data sets will be used to investigate the light scattering properties of rocks and soils along the Curiosity traverse using radiative transfer models. Images were acquired by the Mastcam-34 (M-34) camera on Sols 872-892 at 8 times of day (Mojave drill location), Sols 914-917 (Telegraph Peak drill location) at 9 times of day, and Sols 1000-1003 at 8 times of day (Stimson-Murray Formation contact near Marias Pass). Data sets were acquired using filters centered at 445, 527, 751, and 1012 nm, and the images were jpeg-compressed. Data sets typically were pointed ~east and ~west to provide phase angle coverage from near 0° to 125-140° for a variety of rocks and soils. Also acquired on Sols 917-918 at the Telegraph Peak site was a multiple time-of-day Mastcam sequence pointed southeast using only the broadband Bayer filters that provided losslessly compressed images with phase angles ~55-129°. Navcam stereo images were also acquired with each data set to provide broadband photometry and terrain measurements for computing surface normals and local incidence and emission angles used in photometric modeling. On Sol 1028, the MAHLI camera was used as a goniometer to acquire images at 20 arm positions, all centered at the same location within the work volume from a near-constant distance of 85 cm from the surface. Although this experiment was run at only one time of day (~15:30 LTST), it provided phase angle coverage from ~30° to ~111°. The terrain included the contact between the uppermost portion of the Murray Formation and the Stimson sandstones, and was the first acquisition of both Mastcam and MALHI photometry images at the same rover location. The MAHLI images also allowed construction of a 3D shape model of the Stimson-Murray contact region. The attached figure shows a phase color composite of the western Stimson area, created using phase angles of 8°, 78°, and 130° at 751 nm. The red areas correspond to highly backscattering materials that appear to concentrate along linear fractures throughout this area. The blue areas correspond to more forward scattering materials dispersed through the stratigraphic sequence.