Kjartan Kinch

Kjartan Kinch

Mastcam-Z Co-Investigator and an associate professor, Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen

Kjartan Kinch is an associate Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is an astrophysicist with a 15-year career working on the camera teams on Mars rover missions Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. He is a Mastcam-Z Co-investigator and is the lead designer of the radiometric calibration targets for the Mastcam-Z. These targets were built at the Niels Bohr Institute and delivered to NASA in May 2019 for integration on the rover payload. Kjartan is interested in multispectral imaging, camera calibration, rover operations, dust in the martian atmosphere, and in the geologic history of the Jezero Crater landing site and what it can tell us about ancient Mars. He loves maps.

Latest Planetary Radio Appearances

The Eyes of a New Mars Rover: Mastcam-Z

Mat Kaplan attended a meeting of the science team for the zoom lens camera that will be atop the Mars 2020 rover mast. Planetary Scientist Jim Bell tells us how this new system will show us the Red Planet as we’ve never seen it before.