Monday, September 17, 2012

A Way-Cool Look at Curiosity's Mars Landing

Posted By on Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 12:04 PM

Filmmakers have been cleaning up the video of the Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory's landing on Mars last month. Slate explains:


In the weeks since we first saw the both dazzling and disappointing video of the Curiosity rover landing on Mars, space- and video-enthusiasts have spent hours upon hours trying to make it better. The original video featured a herky-jerky 4 frames-per-second frame rate that made it look as much like a slide show as history in motion. In August, Dominic Muller smoothed out the frame rate by adding in new frames in between the old ones, and the results were awe-inspiring.

For this breathtaking new version, filmmaker Bard Canning spent over a month not only boosting the video’s frame rate, but steadying the camera movement, cleaning up the image, and rendering it in 1080p. As Wired explained, “The result provides the best possible video accuracy while really enhancing the footage.” (You can also watch a before-and-after comparison.)

Since landing, Curiosity has been making sure everything is in working order and has been driving around Gale Crater. Find out the latest here.