3d model of Sojourner rover surroundings?

jumpjack · 04-09-2013 9:59pm #1

Around 15 years ago rover Sojourner bounced/landed on Mars, and then it started rolling around its base station.
I have a small paper model of it on my desk since some years.
But now, 3d printing became affordable for everybody, and I could have a 3d plastic printed model on my desk for around 20-30$.

Ok... but this would be quite trivial. :P
What about, instead, having a 3d printed rover... rolling on a 3d martian terrain?
The rover and the lander had stereo camera, which they used to reconstruct 3d model of surroundings... So I wonder if this 3d reconstruction of surrounding is available for 3d printing too! THIS would be amazing!

Maximus Alexander · 05-09-2013 12:06am

Great idea. I have no idea where you would get the terrain model though. You could always try send a cheeky email to NASA JPL.

jumpjack · 05-09-2013 2:31pm

I spent two days searching in ancient internet sites, bat all links were broken... until I found this:
http://vislab-ccom.unh.edu/~schwehr/photoRealVR

jumpjack · 06-09-2013 10:53pm

It will not be easy... but if actually MeshLab HAS a holes-filler function... (it has, but I didn't yet figure out how it works).

jumpjack · 17-10-2014 10:01am

One year later I am a bit more skilled in 3d graphic and 3d printing. Now I know how to use Netfabb program to fix 3d models for printing, so I'll give it a try to fix this terrain model.
I also just discovered Autodesk Meshfixer, an amazingly powerful 3dprint-fixer!
I hope at least one of these SWs will allow me to fill up all those holes and eventually have my pathfinder landing site printed.

endacl · 17-10-2014 10:04am

Please do this. Great idea.

jumpjack · 19-10-2014 5:05pm

Something to start working with.

Looks like I'll have to work with DAE format for interopearability.

A couple of (hopefully) useful sketchup plugins:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=14975&start=510
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=28586&start=990

Printing in multicolor with tetxture will be manfatory to have acceptable results:

jumpjack · 19-10-2014 5:11pm

Models A, B, C and D differ for polygons number:

jumpjack · 20-10-2014 9:32am

Attempting to contact this ancient email addresses related to landing site 3d modeling:
zbinden at artemis.arc.nasa.gov (Eric Zbinden)
schwehr at cs.stanford.edu (Kurt Schwehr)

Found here:
http://vislab-ccom.unh.edu/~schwehr/photoRealVR/topvr.html

What Internet says about Eric Zbinden:

Mr. Eric Zbinden co-Founded Alpen-IO, Inc. in 2009 and serves as its Director of Engineering. In 1995, Mr. Zbinden started working at NASA Ames Research Center on the Mars Exploration Program where he developed advanced visualization software for Mars Pathfinder. In early 2000, he joined LightLogic Inc. where he focused on the development of optical alignment technologies for transmitter and receiver modules. After the acquisition of LightLogic by Intel Corp., he was put in charge of optical module development and manufacturing transfer to Asia. In 2007, he joined Aprius Inc. as Director of optics development. He holds 12 patents and has published over 20 peer reviewed papers. Mr. Zbinden received his MS degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

About Kurt Schwehr:

POSITIONS:
2012-: Head of Ocean Engineering & GIS Data Engineer, Google.
2012-: Affiliate Faculty, Center for Coastal & Ocean Mapping/JHC, UNH.
2012: Visiting Faculty, Mars Science Laboratory,
Solar System Visualization, NASA JPL.
2011-: Affiliate Faculty, Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire.
2009-: Affiliate Faculty, Computer Science, University of New Hampshire.
2007-2011: Research Assistant Professor, Ocean Engineering and
CCOM/JHC, University of New Hampshire.
2011: Visiting Faculty, Google Oceans, Google, Mt. View, CA.
2008-10: Associate Researcher, NASA Ames
2008: Research Director of the Digital terrain models and
Earth Analogs (DEA) Laboratory, JPL.
2005-06: Research Faculty, Center for Coastal and Ocean
Mapping/JHC, University of New Hampshire.
2000-06: PhD Student, Scripps Inst of Oceanography.
2003-04: Software Engineer, MER flight team, JPL.
2001: Chief Scientist, TTN136B, Eureka, CA.
2000: CTO, Etool & Die, LA.
1999-2000: Computer Scientist, Recom Technologies, NASA Ames, CA.
1998-2000: Visiting Scientist, Field Robotics Center, RI, CS, CMU, PA
1996-98: Computer Scientist, Recom Technologies, NASA Ames
1991-96: Consultant to USGS, SETI Institute, Stanford, and NASA Ames
1989-90: Associate Researcher, NASA Ames

First email is not working, waiting for answer from second. Also found schwehr at <nospam> ccom.unh.edu, schwehr at <nospam> gmail.com and schwehr at <nospam> google.com.

Other renderings found, but no files to download?!?
http://vislab-ccom.unh.edu/~schwehr/viz/doc/vizScienceGUI/demos.html

jumpjack · 20-10-2014 8:40pm

Uploaded Trimble Sketchup version of the landing site model:
http://jumpjack.altervista.org/mars-pathfinder-model-D-color.zip (43 MB)

This is the lo-res version, directly converted from All_D.wrl original file

Available resolutions:
(D):48,500 (C):97,000 (B):485,000 and (A):1,000,000 polygons

Job appears very hard due to many holes, multiple shells and irregular shapes in the model.
Don't know if I'll be actually able to finish it...

jumpjack · 07-07-2018 5:29pm

Have a nice virtual walk! :-)

https://sketchfab.com/models/f442cd26d4ce46f488c2f3bcac90c002

Maximus Alexander · 08-07-2018 4:33pm

I just tried importing this into Blender and it drops right in. The mesh is, as expected, horrible though.

jumpjack · 08-07-2018 8:53pm

Yes, you can look around only "sitting on the mastcam". :-)

Maximus Alexander · 08-07-2018 9:15pm

I was considering trying to tidy it up but then I realised you'd just have to start from scratch and use what's there as a template for retopology. I also can't find any decent blueprints of the Sojourner to work from.

jumpjack · 09-07-2018 8:50pm

Years ago it was very hard to find a digital model of Sojourner, I guess due to copyright from Mattel, which sold its toy.
Now it's different:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/5736eb04fa0fb38438fa0f9c0a591f55/Sojourner-Ares-Vallis-Mars
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/52454f22f6127daaba029b7306e6479b/Sojourner
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/u369e1cb8-af6e-46dc-9d4d-57a919f5b2ca/Mars-Pathfinder-Lander-HIGH-Detail

I can upload them to Sketchfab site if you are not using Sketchup.
What have you got in mind? :-)

Any idea about how to converter an old VRML file in something more modern? For the sketchup model which I obtained 4 years ago, I started from a WRL file which can be read by Meshlab, but I found another one on my hard disk (downloaded who knows when, who knows where from...) with more data but not compatible with Meshlab.
I can see it in OpenInventor viewer and in FreeCad, but Freecad cannot export it to OBJ, and OpenInventor... I don't understand how to export!
I uploaded the new model here:
http://win98.altervista.org/pathfinder/SGI.zip
(80 MB)
Please note that the billboard images are corrupt (casper_gray2.jpg, barn_bill_image.jpg and similar) and I don't know where to get them.

Maximus Alexander · 09-07-2018 10:22pm

Blender can open those up. I can export them to OBJ if you like, but I think you'll be disappointed. Unless I'm missing something, they don't look as good as the ones from the previous source.

jumpjack wrote: »

What have you got in mind? :-)

It just crossed my mind to clean up the terrain a bit and create (or find and add) a high quality Sojourner model to the scene. But I realised that if I retopologise the terrain then I won't have any textures to put on it. I could potentially create some, but they wouldn't be accurate to the real site which I guess defeats the purpose a bit.

jumpjack · 10-07-2018 7:23pm

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Blender can open those up. I can export them to OBJ if you like, but I think you'll be disappointed. Unless I'm missing something, they don't look as good as the ones from the previous source.

Well, let me see! :-) Anyway I have Blender installed, but I'm not very skilled with it, so I can't do this, but maybe you do:
This archive contains 4 different 3d models (A,B,C,D); "A" has the highest polygons count; model is so structured:

All_A.wrl: main file; it loads billboard.wrl (background panorama),lander2.wrl and terrain_A.wrl:
terrain_A.wrl: loads all .wrl files ending in "A" (highest poly)
txxxxA.wrl: each tile loads its own texture ixxxxx.jpg
ixxxxxY.jpg: each texture has 4 variants: Y= Altitude, Color, Enhanced, T (? B/W)
demos folder contains a "D" variant (low poly) example for each "Y" case

Unfortunately the resulting terrain model has a different orientation w.r.t. the model which contains billboards (in SGI.zip archive), captions and arrows, and I am not so skilled in Blender to make them match, and Sketchup would lock up for a couple of weeks while processing... Maybe you can do it?

I collected on one single page all archives and links I was able to find:
http://win98.altervista.org/pathfinder/

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

It just crossed my mind to clean up the terrain a bit and create (or find and add) a high quality Sojourner model to the scene. But I realised that if I retopologise the terrain then I won't have any textures to put on it. I could potentially create some, but they wouldn't be accurate to the real site which I guess defeats the purpose a bit.

Don't mind the texture, just re-use textures available in the model or even just a reddish uniform color; it wouldn't be a scientific job but an artistic job; what is important is that if you succeed in obtaining a clear mesh (mainfold and without holes), it would become color-3d-printable; then we've just to add detailed 3d-printed models of Pathfinder and Sojourner and... wouldn't it look good on the table of our offices? :-)
I'm studying since some years how to print a working rocker-bogie suspension, one day or the other I'll get it!

jumpjack · 10-07-2018 8:16pm

Sorry I am not able to properly export the textures, although they are present in the sketchup model.
https://skfb.ly/6AqpD

Maximus Alexander · 10-07-2018 10:17pm

jumpjack wrote: »

Unfortunately the resulting terrain model has a different orientation w.r.t. the model which contains billboards (in SGI.zip archive), captions and arrows, and I am not so skilled in Blender to make them match, and Sketchup would lock up for a couple of weeks while processing... Maybe you can do it?

I can definitely do this, but I'm a bit confused about what you want to get from the SGI.zip? It seems to me that All_A contains the best quality terrain which means the SGI.zip is surplus to requirements. I feel like I must be dumb somehow, what am I missing?

jumpjack wrote: »

Don't mind the texture, just re-use textures available in the model or even just a reddish uniform color; it wouldn't be a scientific job but an artistic job; what is important is that if you succeed in obtaining a clear mesh (mainfold and without holes), it would become color-3d-printable; then we've just to add detailed 3d-printed models of Pathfinder and Sojourner and... wouldn't it look good on the table of our offices? :-)
I'm studying since some years how to print a working rocker-bogie suspension, one day or the other I'll get it!

If I retopo the terrain I can definitely do an 'artistic' job on the textures to replace them. The ones that come with it would be pretty useless for a printed model because they are generated from the camera on the Pathfinder so they only look good from that perspective. Any other perspective they become increasingly stretched and pixelated the further you get from the lander.

jumpjack · 11-07-2018 12:52pm

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

I can definitely do this, but I'm a bit confused about what you want to get from the SGI.zip? It seems to me that All_A contains the best quality terrain which means the SGI.zip is surplus to requirements. I feel like I must be dumb somehow, what am I missing?

The All_A model in pathfinder_original_archive links to B/W textures, although the package also contains the coloured, enhanced and "altimetric" textures.

The SGI.zip contains a low-res but color 3d model.
Additionally, it contains some more 3d models: rover, lander, rover path (arrows), pictures with captions. I think it was even animated/ineractive in origin, I don't know if also the animation can be converted to modern formats.

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

If I retopo the terrain I can definitely do an 'artistic' job on the textures to replace them. The ones that come with it would be pretty useless for a printed model because they are generated from the camera on the Pathfinder so they only look good from that perspective. Any other perspective they become increasingly stretched and pixelated the further you get from the lander.

They are just rocks, our eyes wouldn't notice anything strange looking at rocks, especially if you get the textures from the images closer to the lander or from [URL="[url]https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA00828[/url]"]bird view[/URL]. Our eyes will just interpret "wrong textures" as shadows.

Maximus Alexander · 11-07-2018 2:35pm

jumpjack wrote: »

The All_A model in pathfinder_original_archive links to B/W textures, although the package also contains the coloured, enhanced and "altimetric" textures.

The SGI.zip contains a low-res but color 3d model.
Additionally, it contains some more 3d models: rover, lander, rover path (arrows), pictures with captions. I think it was even animated/ineractive in origin, I don't know if also the animation can be converted to modern formats.

Ok but your goal is to 3d print it, right? So the animations, arrows, etc. are not necessary?

It seems to me the best way to achieve your goal is to take the All_A terrain, retopologise it into a cleaner, manifold mesh and then generate some new textures for that mesh.

Then modify and texture the Pathfinder, take the high quality Sojourner from Sketchup, and print those separately.

jumpjack · 11-07-2018 5:43pm

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Ok but your goal is to 3d print it, right? So the animations, arrows, etc. are not necessary?

It seems to me the best way to achieve your goal is to take the All_A terrain, retopologise it into a cleaner, manifold mesh and then generate some new textures for that mesh.

Then modify and texture the Pathfinder, take the high quality Sojourner from Sketchup, and print those separately.

Actually I want to do to many things...
I started with the idea to print the terrain model; I abandoned the idea once I saw that I wasn't skilled enough to do that.
Now, 4 years later, I see that cheap Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality viewers are available around for anybody which has a smartphone with gyro, so I would like to create a "complete" 3d model: adding rover path, lander model and pictures shot by the rover would be already cool, but being able even to add the original animations (if any) would be great.

But let's start with printing, then we'll see. :rolleyes:

In the meantime, I added to my page some useful software I found around.
http://win98.altervista.org/pathfinder/

jumpjack · 03-03-2021 6:57pm

Thanks to new mars rover Perseverance, I am now getting back to this project...
How is it going?
I found some new sources from NASA:
Imagery: https://pdsimage2.wr.usgs.gov/Missions/Mars_Pathfinder/ (also accessible via FTP)

Volume ID            SCLK Range
          ---------      -----------------------
          MPIM_0001      1229455934 - 1247913223
          MPIM_0002      1247913268 - 1249772261
          MPIM_0003      1249772268 - 1254046834

3d data:
3d maps in .TAB files: https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/mpf/mpfl-m-imp-5-3dposition-v1/mpim_2xxx/data/
Textured VRML 1.0 files: https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/mpf/mpfl-m-imp-5-3dposition-v1/mpim_2xxx/extras/

VRML 1.0 to 2.0 converter:
http://www.interocitors.com/polyhedra/vr1tovr2/index.html

Looking at incredible things becoming available on Sketchfab for Perseverance rover, maybe somebody could succeed also in building the 3d model of pathfinder landing site at last, after 25 years?

3d model of Sojourner rover surroundings?

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