NASA Scrubs Work on 3D Zoom Cameras, Nixing Avatar Director’s Next Mega Pix

NASA has halted work on an advanced zoom 3D camera system under development in San Diego for the SUV-sized Mars Science Laboratory rover—to the disappointment of Avatar filmmaker James Cameron.

In a statement Friday, privately held Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) of San Diego said there wasn’t enough time remaining to finish testing and integrating the advanced 3D zoom instruments for the scheduled launch of the spacecraft this November. The cameras were supposed to be mounted to the top of a mast on Curiosity, the name NASA has given the newest Mars rover.

“While Curiosity won’t benefit from the 3D motion imaging that the zooms enable, I’m certain that this technology will play an important role in future missions,” Cameron says in a statement from the company. MSSS lists the filmmaker in its credits as “Mastcam Co-Investigator.”

As I reported in 2008, the San Diego company had enlisted Cameron’s help years ago, with the idea of combining its scientific mission with imaging capabilities that could be used to create a stunning movie about Mars. “We proposed this integrated camera system that could do the science imaging that NASA wanted, but also had this zoom capability,” Michael Ravine, MSSS advanced project manager, told me at the time.

Cameron had used a pair of Russian deep-diving research submarines in a similar way to obtain footage from the bottom of the Atlantic for his 1997 film Titanic.

NASA had halted previous development of an HD zoom lens system in 2007, and MSSS delivered two fixed focal length cameras last April. With the two completed and delivered fixed focal length cameras in hand, NASA then decided to fund completion of zoom cameras, with the possibility of swapping out the old cameras for the new ones if they could be assembled and tested in time. The move, which followed the boffo success of Cameron’s 3D film Avatar, included a decision to make stereoscopic 3D zoom camera systems for the spacecraft.

Curiosity on a tilt table at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA

While MSSS finished work on the cameras by the December deadline, subsequent optical analysis of the images showed irregularities due to unexpected and extremely small variations in the fabrication of some pieces. “At the end of the day there just wasn’t enough time to disassemble the units, make the changes, put them back together, and get the instruments to JPL in time,” Ravine said.

In the statement issued by the company, the director renowned for his determination sounded an upbeat note about the setback. He’s quoted as saying, “We’re certainly going to make the most of our cameras that are working so well on Curiosity right now,” but you know, it’s a press release.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.