Dr Fred Calef III has the unofficial title of "Keeper of Maps" at NASA JPL, he's the Lead Mapping Specialist for most of JPL's Mars Rover missions, most recently that being Perseverance & Curiosity. But to land -and navigate- a rover, one needs maps, and Fred makes them.

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About Fred

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Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• VICAR Github repo (Video Image Communication & Retrieval)
• Mars 2020 Rover: Terrain Relative Navigation
• Airy-o crater
• 7 Minutes to Mars
• MMGIS (Multi Planet Geospatial Information System)
  • Github Repo
  • Mars Rover Location Map

Book recommendations

• Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Affiliate Link)
• The Martian by Andy Weird (Affiliate Link)

Timestamps

(00:00) - Introduction

(00:48) - Sponsor: Nimbo by Kermap

(02:23) - How would you describe yourself?

(03:18) - Keeper of the Maps

(05:04) - What it takes to map Mars

(10:21) - Deciding where to put (0,0)

(12:33) - Current accuracy of Mars mapping

(14:01) - 150m / pixel: How do you find anything?

(18:14) - Rover cameras on the ground

(22:39) - Creating detailed maps for the Rover's automation

(26:07) - How would we be navigating on Mars if we send people there?

(31:20) - Comparing to the early days of car navigation

(34:15) - Using a compass on Mars

(36:13) - Mapping tools

(48:54) - Has every image of Mars been seen by at least 1 person?

(53:37) - Mars doesn't change that much

(56:45) - More strange difference between Mars & Earth

(01:00:53) - Mapping other celestial bodies

(01:05:04) - Missions or mapping projects that Fred is looking forward to

(01:06:10) - Book/podcast recommendation

(01:10:06) - One last question: Mars time

(01:13:19) - Support the podcast on Patreon

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