Alma Technologies JPEG Encoder IP Core compresses images aboard NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover

The use of Alma Technologies JPEG Encoder IP core in Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) camera systemaboard NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover was revealed in an announcement on 15.05.2014 by CAST, Inc. and MSSS.

The innovative system MSSS designed for the Mars Science Laboratory rover transmits to Earth JPEG compressed thumbnails for everything it shoots. Scientists choose the most interesting of these images for further study which are then retransmitted as full-resolution originals, or JPEG encoded with the desired degree of compression.