Pre-Launch Pictures from the Mars Polar Lander Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
A MARDI image taken after the instrument's focus tests in December 1997.
Shown left to right are three of the engineers who worked on MARDI:
Mike Caplinger (MSSS), Tony Ghaemi (Corning OCA), and Jeff Lewis (MSSS).
Focus test image from MARDI in December 1997. The three rectangles
on the wall are bar targets. The bottom target has a spacing below
the Nyquist frequency of the MARDI detector, so the bars are aliased
to a lower spatial frequency. Note that this image only covers part
of the MARDI field of view.
MARDI geometric calibration test image.
MARDI picture taken after integration with the spacecraft
at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver, Colorado). MARDI is looking
at the floor. The location of the test points,
numbered one through five, were determined by theodolite.
Click here for the full-resolution image.
"Movie" of MARDI decent image sequence test conducted at the
Kennedy Space Center, where the "inflatable alien" stood
guard over the Mars Polar Lander during launch preparations.
In this test, the alien is placed below the camera. This test
was conducted November 9, 1998.
Image Credits: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
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©1999 Malin Space Science Systems, Inc.
