The much-anticipated full-colour panoramic view of Spirit鈥檚 landing site on Mars was unveiled late on Monday.
It was created from 225 individual images, each 1024 by 1024 pixels. The highly detailed view it provides of the planet鈥檚 surface around NASA鈥檚 lander will be a crucial tool for the scientists planning the rover鈥檚 first days of exploration. Its completion was considered one of the mission鈥檚 top priorities.
Detailed calibration will take more time, but the image is 鈥渁pproximately true color鈥� as it would be seen by a person, said Michael Malin, the image specialist who computer stitched the panorama together.
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The full dataset includes panoramas taken through 14 different colour filters, to aid in the identification of rock types. Furthermore, the whole scene is duplicated by two side-by-side cameras to provide three-dimensional views.
快猫短视频s have already reconstructed a 3-D view of one small patch of ground, where the airbags scraped across the soil as they were retracted. The disturbed soil there has puzzled the science team because it appears to have folded and bunched like a piece of carpet. 鈥淭his is soft material that also behaves cohesively,鈥� says team member John Grotzinger of MIT.
Deep impact
Any fears that the site would lack interesting targets for investigation have long been dispelled. As Malin put it, there are so many tantalising places to probe that 鈥渢he problem is we have too many directions to go in鈥�.
Among the most tempting is the rim of a large crater just 250 metres away. It appears to be surrounded by large boulders thrown out by the impact that created it. These represent samples from several tens of metres depth and could reveal much about the area鈥檚 geological history.
The lander will continue to take daily pictures when it begins its travels, but the panorama will be one of the few times such a comprehensive view is obtained, Malin said.
And, because Spirit is expected to roll of its 50-centimetre-high landing platform on Wednesday or Thursday, this is the last time it will ever have such a high vantage point.