Sol 550 : A MAHLI Panorama

Here is a hotlinked sol 549 Navcam image of a small ridge that captured the interest of Curiosity. I think it’s about 2 feet long:

On sol 550 it took a series of MAHLI closeups, and also this Navcam image of the robotic arm ( with the MAHLI on it ) during the process of doing so:

BTW, here is an image which shows the arm in the stowed position, prelaunch:

There are three joints on the arm itself, with all the axes parallel, so it moves in one plane with motion of these three joints. There’s a vertical “post” that carries the arm assembly and allows it to swing out and away from the base. You can see it projecting downward near the left front wheel.

You can also see the name plate on top of the upper beam of the stowed arm, and the forward projecting arm joint at the right side of the rover. These are visible in many of the downward looking Navcam and Mastcam images, including the first image of this post.

If I had understood all this correctly, I never would have made that blooper in my SPOT OF BOTHER post!

Anyway, the MAHLI took a series of images of this little ridge on sol 550, and they appeared to be suitable for a panorama, so I tried it. It worked pretty well, but it is not a true panorama. The images on the left were part of a “scan” where the MAHLI changed position but kept pointing in the same direction, more or less. Then the images at the right were made by swinging the POV outward. It stitches down the centerline pretty well, but you can see some doubling up of particular features above and below. Well, a nice result and it shows incredible detail. As always, CLICK TO ENLARGE!

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