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Analysis of Object Movement in Mars InSight Camera Images
  • Zachary Lihn,
  • Peter Chi
Zachary Lihn
Timothy Christian School

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Peter Chi
Department of Earth and NASA Planetary Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
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Abstract

The NASA Mars InSight lander carries two color cameras: The Instrument Context Camera (ICC), a wide-angle camera mounted to the lander, and the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), mounted to the lander robotic arm. The cameras provide both valuable information for lander and instrument operation and essential data for a range of scientific studies. In this study, we examine ICC images to investigate whether there is any shift that might be associated with lander movement. Detection of lander movement may lead to potential applications, including a possibility of inferring the background magnetic field. We focused on the data intervals where there were strong winds, many ICC images taken during the Martian day, or during seismometer deployment. Because any potential shift in ICC images is expected to be minuscule, we developed a computer program to search for the shift between images which minimizes the sum of squared differences in brightness. The preliminary results indicate that the lander, ICC, and the mount are very robust. Our image analysis method is suitable for identifying object movement in color images from both InSight cameras.