Focus on Mastcam-Z

This animation consists of images taken by the left Mastcam-Z flight camera during one of the 100 dot target tests. After each test, the target was moved to a different distance from the cameras. Mastcam-Z was swept through its full zoom range. By imaging this target at so many positions and distances while varying focus and zoom, the Mastcam-Z team will precisely understand the geometric distortion introduced by the Mastcam-Z optics into its images and measure the effective focal length and field of view at each focus and zoom position. MSSS Operations Engineer Jason Van Beek (left) and Cornell Mastcam-Z graduate student collaborator Paul Corlies (right) were the cleanroom technicians for this testing.