Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Pre-Launch Images

This MAHLI image shows a 26.2 by 19.7 mm (1.03 by 0.78 inches) area on a rock imaged at a scale of 16.4 microns (0.0006 inch) per pixel. The rock is a dense zinc ore from Franklin, New Jersey; the red mineral is zincite (zinc oxide, ZnO₄). The 1 mm scale bar equals about 0.04 inch. The picture was taken during MAHLI camera head post-vibration testing on 3 September 2008.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

This image of two rocks was taken by the MAHLI on 25 September 2008. The rocks were illuminated by MAHLI’s white light LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes). On the left is an Eocene sandstone from San Diego, California, containing a fossil marine gastropod shell (Turritella uvasana) collected by the MAHLI Principal Investigator, Ken Edgett. The shell is 12 mm (about 1/2 inch) long. The rock on the right, collected by Co-Investigator Dawn Y. Sumner (University of California, Davis), contains fossilized microbial mat remnants encased in calcite from the Gamohaan Formation of South Africa. This rock is about two and a half billion years old. The full-resolution image has a scale of about 34 microns (0.0001 inch) per pixel; the 2 millimeter scale bar equals 0.079 inch.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

This picture shows a MAHLI view of a portion of a rounded basalt cobble collected in Iceland by MAHLI Deputy Principal Investigator, Mike Malin. The large white-ish features are crystals of the mineral, plagioclase, that crystalized in the magma before the basalt lava was erupted onto the Earth’s surface. The holes in the cobble result from gas bubbles in that lava. This is a MAHLI view of the same rock that the MSL MARDI imaged in June 2008 (see Figure 3 of the 17 July 2008 MARDI Press Release). The rock in this case was imaged at a scale of ~49 microns per pixel. The 3 mm scale bar equals about 0.12 inch. The picture was taken during MAHLI calibration activities on 30 September 2008.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

MAHLI can not only take close-up pictures with resolution as high as 15 microns (0.0006 inch) per pixel, it can also focus at infinity, allowing the camera to be used to take pictures at a variety of distances from the instrument. This is a sub-frame of a MAHLI image acquired on 19 September 2008 which shows the far-viewing capability of the instrument. At the time, the MAHLI was inside a cleanroom at Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS), undergoing instrument calibration and characterization tests. This picture shows a view looking from the cleanroom, through a window into another room, and then through a window in that room to the outside. The picture shows a typical San Diego, California, blue sky and the green fronds of palm trees. The back end of a parked sport utility vehicle (SUV) can also be seen.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems