Master's Thesis Defense by Jessica Kristensen

Title: Stereoscopic Processing and Color Calibration of Mastcam-Z images from the NASA Perserverance Rover's First 621 Sols on Mars

Abstract: 

On February 18, 2021, NASA's Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater, on the surface of Mars. With it, is a set of multispectral, stereoscopic cameras, known as Mastcam-Z. The cameras aid the mission in characterizing the landscape geomorphology of the rover field site and provide operational support for the mission. Along with the cameras, Perseverance carries a set of calibration targets, provided by the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen, that enable the obtained image data to be converted from units of radiance into units of reflectance. This thesis project involves extensive analyses of Mastcam-Z calibration target data acquired over the course of Perseverance’s first 621 sols on Mars. A secondary part of the project involved participation in daily Mastcam-Z camera operations, and production of second-order data products that assist in characterizing the geomorphology of Jezero Crater.