Martian Vistas

The Bonestell panorama is still not completely downlinked however NASA have released a version to celebrate Spirit's five years on Mars I thought I'd do the same and add something extra with a colour anaglyph (3D, you'll need a pair of those red/blue glasses).

I've kept it in the 'rover frame' so the horizon is curved. This is because this is the way the two 'eyes' of Sprit saw the scene and you would have needed to tilt your head as you panned across the picture to see it properly if I had changed it. I found the b/w 'ground frame' version that NASA posted distorted and very hard to view properly.

I'll post the normal 2D versions and larger 3D versions when the last bits of the image have finished being downloaded from the rover.

Happy birthday Spirit!

Large (8072 x 2440) (5.4Mb)
Medium (4036 x 1220) (1.7Mb)
Small (2018 x 610) (464kb)

Here is the full Santorini Panorama taken just before conjunction - with most of the images being downlinked just a few days ago after conjunction was over. There are a few imperfections in this panorama caused by the dust on the camera lens - I am still trying to find a way of removing these but it has turned out to be more difficult than I expected!

Full resolution (25128 x 4453) (20.5Mb)
Half resolution (12564 x 2227) (5.4Mb)
Quarter resolution (6282 x 1114) (1.5Mb)
One Eighth resolution (3141 x 557) (444kb)

As this is a full 360 degree panorama, here it is reprojected into polar coordinates.

Full resolution (5388 x 5388) (5.6Mb)
Half resolution (2694 x 2694) (1.6Mb)
Quarter resolution (1347 x 1347) (456kb)

In the newly released PDS images I stumbled across a HiRISE image for the rest of the trek to Endurance Crater! I have run my ripple mapping terrain analysis program on this new image and made a mosaic with the first version to show the whole route.

1/8 resolution (7594 x 16218) (25.7Mb)
1/16 resolution (3797 x 8109) (6.7Mb)
1/32 resolution (1899 x 4055) (1.6Mb)
1/64 resolution (950 x 2028) (376kb)

Here is a small version overlayed onto a regular map of the area made by Tim Parker

Full image (3400 x 2200) (1.4Mb)

Endeavour looks fantastic I can't wait to get there.

It turns out I was a little premature with my posting of a 'conjunction' version of Spirits Bonestell Panorama; a few more images came down successfully. However in the last few sols all the new images have been very ratty (missing lots of sections) from both rovers so I really don't think we'll be getting many decent images for the next few weeks this time!

Opportunity has also just taken a large (360 degrees I think) panorama while working on a cobble named Santorini. This panorama (of the same name) is only partially down and it is going to be several weeks now till much of the rest comes down without being severely corrupted due to the data passing so close to the sun. So in the meantime here is the section that did make it down largely intact.

Full resolution (9526 x 4248) (9.3Mb)
Half resolution (4763 x 2124) (3Mb)
Quarter resolution (2382 x 1062) (856kb)

There are still eight more images to add to the Bonestell Panorama. But as solar conjunction has now come (the sun is directly between the Earth and Mars), we are unlikely to see these till mid December. So here is a preview of the panorama as it is today, at one-quarter of the full spectacular resolution.

Quarter resolution (5704 x 1103) (1.4Mb)
One-eighth resolution (2852 x 552) (396kb)

Drive direction mosaic taken after the sol 1709 drive.

Full resolution (6886 x 1165) (2.1Mb)
Half resolution (3443 x 583) (652kb)

And a 'survey' mosaic taken on sol 1711

Full resolution (10842 x 1280) (3.3Mb)
Half resolution (5421 x 640) (1Mb)

A colour anaglyph (stereo) version of the Sol 1707 drive direction mosaic.

Normal 2D version here

Full resolution (3554 x 1239) (968kb)
Half resolution (1777 x 620) (276kb)

Drive direction mosaic taken after the sol 1707 drive. Note the distant view on the left side of the image and the significant outcrop in the centre - middle distance.

Full resolution (3555 x 1236) (1Mb)
Half resolution (1778 x 618) (308kb)

At a press conference last night it was announced that Phoenix had been lost. As the days in the Martian Arctic get shorted with the onset of winter this was not unexpected. It's been a great mission, thanks Phoenix and all involved.

Here is the last image of the Martian surface taken.

And here is the very last image taken (one of a pair).

Not very dramatic, but as Mark Lemmon said on UMSF "those are a water vapor band/continuum pair, so Phoenix was following the water to the end."

Very fitting.

Following on from my last post - here is the R12 colour drive direction mosaic from the sol 1700 drive. (1700 sols wow!) All the raw images are very dark which affects the quality of this and the rightmost frame is quite badly affected by lens-flare.

Full resolution (3552 x 1122) (700kb)
Half resolution (1776 x 561) (220kb)