The MRO team seemed determined to make a good first impression. They came into the arena of public opinion brimming with enthusiasm and glasnost, proud of their mission and eager to please. Unlike  Some Other NASA resources, they solicited feedback and suggestions  and promised  to deliver results promptly.  Their releases , after the inevitable delays any new project encounters, were even ahead of schedule. The images were every bit as good as anyone had predicted. Unfortunately, they were almost too good.

	PSP_004026_1765b :  This particular one isn't quite as sharp as one might think it should be, since it is from a supposedly full-res close-up (what they call a "cut out"). Interesting, though. Rotated left from the posted orientation so you can see the cast of characters a little easier. Notice the arch at the top- and the face next to it.  Click HERE for a bigger version.

Because of the high resolution of the images, they were very, very big. Previous missions had not routinely posted the actual full-size images to the public archives for just that reason. Even the images from Viking were available on back-channel, intended-for-Scientists archives in much larger formats. I know that one because I accidentally found some of those years ago . JPL had built in a shortcut to the big versions on the regular archive, which involved ignoring the download instructions. Anyway, this  does not contradict what I said before about "no secret archives", because they weren't different, just bigger. But let's stick to topic.

The MRO people had discussions on this issue, and posted the notes of the meetings on their blog. They voted, and by a split decision, decided to switch to the JPEG2000 (usually called jp2) format for the releases, as the files were getting too large for the regular JPEG format. The science-beloved high-resolution TIFF and PNG formats would yield preposterously huge files. So the jp2 wavelet compression format, a civilian cousin to  various arcane formats used in the geosciences, seemed like a good choice.

I am explaining this, by the way, because most people, including probably most of you reading now, never see any space pictures other than the Press Release ones. Relatively few "civilians" actually personally download images from NASA archives, or care anything about file formats. I meet people constantly who ask, "Where did you get this? They have no idea there even are public archives. So the word enhancement would be assumed to refer to some sort of cosmetic surgery. Back before the Internet existed, space fans could actually order custom prints of space images from NASA. They do want you to look at their stuff. After all, you paid for it.  But do not expect NASA to show you what is really there, 'cause then they'd have some 'splainin'  to do, as Ricky Ricardo put it.		PSP_003609_1110 detail

The MRO team  has continued to introduce improvements to their website, trying to make it more user-friendly, and now the curious can select a small area of interest on one of the huge pictures and then view it at full resolution. But if you want your own copy of the original, well, some of the images are over 2 gigabytes in size- in the highly compressed jp2 format ! This translates to more than twice that, at a minimum, when you try to open the file, which is larger than the hard drives on my first three computers were. OK, so you have a huge hard drive, you say? The problem is this- the jp2 format was not designed for nor tested with such big files. The available viewing software sometimes doesn't even work. So the website is friendly, but the files are problematical. Thus far, therefore, most of those full-size MRO images are inaccessible to most people- not impossible, but more effort than most people will be willing to put to the task. That's OK, they may want you to look, but in the best NASA tradition, they don't particularly want you to mess with them (almost any image enhancement technique will involve upsampling, which results in an even larger file). Take what's offered and be quiet. Let's assume (and  hope) that this is not some stealth method to keep the good stuff away from the peons. The evidence on their website is that they are doing everything possible to make the data public-accessible. In any case, the reasonably sized JPEG "browse" versions are still often the equal of  most of the earlier mission High-Res images. And maybe someone will eventually write some better consumer software to handle this problem. Meanwhile, you can always grab the RAW format image strips from the archive and assemble them yourself. Right, that's going to happen. We already talked about this in the last chapter anyway.

	A little piece of  PSP_004981_1435, from the small version of the image. The JP2 file is over a gigabyte in size, too big for me to use, sorry.  This is one of the extra  images added to the archives outside of the regular releases. The description merely calls it an "unusual feature". This represents maybe 5% of the area on the posted image, so I am not sure where the unusual  part is supposed to be.

	Here's part of  PSP_004089_1065, down at the bottom, though this view is rotated. Don't worry- that feature at upper right here is easy to spot. I was initially thinking how much it resembles a number of similar features that appear on MGS images, and then I realized it also resembles in some ways the Cydonia Face complex (now that we know what that really looks like). Which, of course, means a whole new bunch of stuff to investigate in the search for patterns.  Sigh. Why don't they just tell us, already? Thumbnail below, close-up, you know the drill...
		As usual, you can generally see more in the long view, but close ups are important , too. Some might actually be interested in how the structural design works. Not particularly easy to figure out, but interesting nonetheless.

The  short answer to why I spent so much time on this topic, despite the fact that I am not weaving the MRO people into any new part of the Conspiracy:  to explain why there are few examples here of entire MRO images, or even large sections. I use small segments of the full-res originals when I can, for close-in details, but for wider sections, the files are simply too big for me to work with. For some that my resources can just barely handle, the results would have to be reduced so much, or cropped to such a tiny piece of the whole, that it makes more sense to start with the small versions. A related issue is the selection of a target zone on a raw image. I have gotten fairly good at that, but you really cannot tell what is going to be revealed by enhancement, so it is better to start with a larger area. The esa and MRO images may be "honest", in comparison to the tweaked earlier pictures, but the best features are not usually obvious on the originals. Images like the Coprates Catena image shown earlier are not the norm. Once you get a sense of what is really there, it all becomes easier, but I am still constantly surprised. Speaking of having to use the smaller version to enhance the majority of an image, here is the MRO Face. Yes, I know it's a little dark. I had to leave the saturation fairly high to accent the detail, and because...Where Is My Monkey !?!

	Given the mutable nature of the tolas designs, it is not surprising that different views of the same location show different things. After all, this was the most perplexing and infuriating aspect of Mars to the Insiders from the very beginning. But to establish any sort of  claim of evidence, there has to be some repeatability demonstrated. Fortunately, the framing of the MRO image is close enough to compare with the MGS one on the previous page, even though the perspective is slightly different.
	PSP_003234_2210
	I'll just concentrate on  a couple of things. You can see the Martians in the upper right and lower left corners (or, the skeptic will say, the lumps I am imagining to be Martians). They typify a  Cydonia feature I have not pointed out before. On all the various dioramas revealed by all the diverse combinations of angles and filters and cameras used to photograph Cydonia over the past 30-plus years, all the nearby figures are always pointing toward the Face. It may be on the edge of the group of structures there, but it is still the  focus of attention.  You have to get a fair distance away before that situation wanes. Now we just have to figure out why. Continuing with the comparison: if you look closely, the stressed out ladies from the MGS image are just visible, though not distinct in color here. The monkey should be right above that little hook, but is not clear at all. To me, this indicates he is not as three-dimensional a form as he appears to be on the other image, but a tolas that relies on a specific light angle to show, just like the color of the female faces. Not really a surprise, but it is striking how defined he is when you can see him. I told you there is a lot of glass (and refractive effects) involved. I see enough other correspondences with the contents of other Cydonia images  to validate this one, but I am not going to fill six more pages with them here. Even if it did not bore you, it would bore me. You will have a much more entertaining and enlightening time doing the cross-comparison yourself, I think. There is a certain separate fascination in discovering how  one  picture can agree point by point with several others, yet not always the same points. It is somewhat of a mathematical metaphor- in some advanced mathematical models of the Universe, you need eleven dimensions to fully describe everything, yet to define any individual specific thing, you only need to use six. But not always the same six, thus the need for a bigger toolbox. Who knows? Maybe that is one of the messages here.
		Here's a close up look at the area. To look for the specific tolas discussed above, you'd have to walk back halfway across the room. But the detail is interesting. This is the thumbnail, the great big version awaits your click. The extremely attentive may be able to tell where the faces visible on the "monkeyview" are, though different things are visible from this angle.
	Here's the less-noticed of the two circular features near the Face. No one seems to have named it, so I call it the Hubcap. From PSP_003234_2210br Looks like something from a Tomb Raider level. I suppose that fellow is waiting for Lara Croft... From the full JP2 version. Oddly, the browse version seems to yield better results (certainly better color), although the full one has more detail, especially in those three "windows". There are really fascinating faces, with some wild tolas action, in them- but so far I am not satisfied with the enhancement results, so there is no close-up worth posting yet. Sorry. It almost seems like the Cydonia Curse, but once again we have a file that is not as good as it should be. The MRO people have commented that 3234_2210 is not their best, either, so maybe a reshoot will happen eventually. I just hope they include the Hubcap and that other round feature in full when they do.