Malin Space Systems - LARGE VIEW 50cm/pixel

SOURCE: Malin Space Science Systems

Over the past year and a half, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) operations teams have been developing and testing a technique through which the MOC can acquire images that have a higher resolution than the camera was originally designed to achieve. The technique is tricky and the spacecraft does not always hit its target. However, when it does, the results can be spectacular. Two examples are shown here. The first (MOC2-862a), providing key evidence for the action of liquid water on Mars, is a view of megaripples formed in an ancient catastrophic flood in Athabasca Vallis. The second (MOC2-862b) shows the Mars Exploration Rover (MER-A), Spirit, and the tracks it made during the first 85 sols of work in Gusev Crater.

Under normal operating conditions, the highest resolution images the MOC narrow angle camera can obtain are about 1.4 to 1.5 meters per pixel (4.6-5.0 feet/pixel). An image of 1.4 m/pixel permits objects approximately 4 to 5 meters across (13-16 ft) to be clearly resolved. The new technique developed by the MOC and MGS operations teams, known as cPROTO for "compensated Pitch and Roll Targeted Observation," allows the camera to obtain images that have better than 1 meter per pixel resolution. Typically, the images will have about 1.5 meters per pixel resolution in the cross-track (east-west) direction, and about 50 centimeters (half a meter) per pixel in the downtrack (north-south) direction. These pictures also have an improved signal-to-noise ratio when compared to "normal" 1.5 m/pixel images, thus improving on the overall quality of a typical MOC full-resolution image. MOC cPROTO images allow objects of as small as 1.5 meters (5 feet) to be seen, including the Mars Exploration Rovers and the tracks they make on the surface.

The MOC narrow angle camera consists of a single line of 2048 detectors (which translates to 2048 pixels in a full-resolution, full-width image). The motion of the MGS spacecraft as it orbits Mars allows this single line of detectors to be swept over the planet's surface, building up an image one line at a time (i.e., much as a flatbed scanner attached to a computer builds up a picture). Because the MGS orbit is nearly circular, each of the 2048 pixels in a full resolution image correspond to a square ~1.5 by ~1.5 meters on a side, thus giving the typical "1.5 meters per pixel" or "1.5 m/pixel" resolution often cited for MOC's most detailed images. 

Available Image Sizes:

• 2 m/pixel (2.1 MB)
• 1 m/pixel (9.1 MB) 
• 50 cm/pixel JPG (35 MB)
• 50 cm/pixel GIF (46 MB)

Description:

Mars Rover "Opportunity" at Victoria crater, as viewed from orbit on October 3, 2006. Note the shadow of the rover's camera mast.

Original JPL site caption: "This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity near the rim of "Victoria Crater." Victoria is an impact crater about 800 meters (half a mile) in diameter at Meridiani Planum near the equator of Mars. Opportunity has been operating on Mars since January, 2004. Five days before this image was taken, Opportunity arrived at the rim of Victoria, after a drive of more than 9 kilometers (over 5 miles). It then drove to the position where it is seen in this image.

Shown in the image are "Duck Bay," the eroded segment of the crater rim where Opportunity first arrived at the crater; "Cabo Frio," a sharp promontory to the south of Duck Bay; and "Cape Verde," another promontory to the north. When viewed at the highest resolution, this image shows the rover itself, wheel tracks in the soil behind it, and the rover's shadow, including the shadow of the camera mast. After this image was taken, Opportunity moved to the very tip of Cape Verde to perform more imaging of the interior of the crater.
This view is a portion of an image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on Oct. 3, 2006. The complete image is centered at minus7.8 degrees latitude, 279.5 degrees East longitude. The range to the target site was 297 kilometers (185.6 miles). At this distance the image scale is 29.7 centimeters (12 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects about 89 centimeters (35 inches) across are resolved. North is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:30 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 59.7 degrees, thus the sun was about 30.3 degrees above the horizon."

Date: 3 October 2006(2006-10-03)

Author: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Source: NASA Photo Journal

"Victoria Crater," about 800 meters (one-half mile) in diameter, has been home ground for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity for more 14 of the rover's first 46 months on Mars. This view shows the rover's path overlaid on an image of the crater taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Opportunity first reached the crater's rim on Sept. 27, 2006, during the 951st Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work in the Meridian Planum region of Mars. The rover then explored clockwise about one-fourth of the way around the rim before returning to a point close to its first overlook. On the mission's 1,293rd sol (Sept. 13, 2007), Opportunity began a sustained exploration of the interior of the crater, entering at an alcove called "Duck Bay" on the western side of Victoria.

This traverse map includes Opportunity's route though Sol 1,365 (Nov. 26, 2007). The scale bar is 300 meters (984 feet) long. 

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Cornell/Ohio State University

Image Addition Date: 2006-10-06

Source: NASA Photo Journal

Mars Pathfinder Super Pan

Explanation: Spectacular details of rover tracks, wind-driven soil, and textured rocks on the Martian surface fill this color mosaic. The view is north-northeast from the Sagan Memorial Station at the Pathfinder landing site on Mars. These images are just part of the "Super Panorama" - a detailed color and stereo imaging data set being compiled by Pathfinder's IMP camera. The data set will be used to derive detailed topographic maps of the landing site and to further explore the mineralogy of the martian rocks and soil. The forward rover deployment ramp and the rock named Barnacle Bill, appear in the foreground at the left while the larger Yogi rock is partly visible at the upper right. Criss-crossing tracks were made by the cruising Sojourner robot rover's spiked wheels. With three wheels on each side, the two foot long rover makes tracks about 1.5 feet apart. 

SOURCE: NASA APOD October 10, 1997 

• NASA Scenic Image Collection
• Scenic/NASA Photography/Mars
• Spirit Rover Tracks - Bonneville Crater
• Mars Orbiter Sees Rover Tracks Among Thousands of New Images
• Views of Spirit's Rover Tracks and Athabasca Vallis Flood Features - MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-862, 27 September 2004
• Flight Projects - Mars Exploration Rover - Robotics NASA
• Mars Pathfinder Rover: Sojourner - Robotics NASA
• Opportunity at Victoria Crater from Mars reconnaissance orbiter
• Deep Tracks In Colorful Salt - Spirit Sol 784
• Tracks on Mars - HiRISE PSP-001415-1875 - Mike Singh (Anotated)
• Mysterious ‘Tracks’ On Mars And The Moon! - Mike Singh
• Dune Buggy Tracks in Martian Crater? - Dust Devil Trails
• Dune Buggy Tracks in Martian Crater? E12-00113
• Mars Pathfinder Super Pan - NASA APOD October 10, 1997 
• LO-5-168-H2: - Movement on the Moon: The "Rolling Boulder" with tracks