March: the beauty of this landscape amazed the Curiosity team

At the end of each series of exploration “journeys” determined by his team on Earth, Curiosity (already 9 Earth years on Mars) take the opportunity to rest and take some pictures of the surrounding landscape.

This time, tell the Nasa, the members of the team were so amazed by the pictures taken yet in bass resolution by the navigation cameras (NavCam), which they decided to press the shutter button again, this time making a series in high resolution.

Here is the result after having melted the two images and operated some retouching: a fascinating panorama of the Red Planet.

A colorful postcard of the landscape that Curiosity crosses

The images were taken recently (November 16 on Earth, on the 3,299th Mars day of the rover), from the promontory where Curiosity is currently located, still on the slopes of Mount Sharp. The mountain which rises to 5,500 meters is revealed a little here on the right of the photo. To the left of the rover, we discover the relief baptized Rafael Navarro, in tribute to a member of the JPL.

In the distance, on the horizon, more than 30 kilometers from the rover, stretches a huge Wall of rocks some 2,300 meters high. This is the rim of the vast impact crater where Curiosity landed 9 years ago, the Gale crater (155 km in diameter). Closer, between 400 and 800 meters from the eyes of Curiosity, the astonishing mounds carved by the winds Martians from the complex of ” sand of Forvie ”.

As for the colors that cover these two photos combined and originally, in black and white, they do not reflect what we could see with our own eyes, but were added taking into account the brightness which surround the sky at two times of the Martian day. The first, the left part of the photo, shows the morning atmosphere in orange tones, while the second, in blue tones, on the right, the late afternoon.

In the same geological context, Curiosity has split a new selfie, including the various pieces of the puzzle, have just been handed over to the mission’s central headquarters. Several space exploration enthusiasts have already shared their work.

Curiosity fills our eyes with this superb panorama of Mars

Article published from Xavier Demeersman published on March 5, 2020

It is to date the best image ever taken of the surface of Mars: 1.8 billion pixels of Martian landscape. You will not believe your eyes ! Visit Mount Sharp and Gale Crater as if you were there, in the company of Curiosity.

“A feast for the eyes. “ This is how Ashwin Vasavada, researcher of the mission, qualifies this splendid panorama of Mars produced by the rover Curiosity. There is no shortage of superlatives: 1.8 billion pixels make up this fresco captured between November 24 and 1^er December 2019. Nearly 1,200 photos were patiently assembled. They were all taken with the Mastcam the one-ton rover between noon and 2 p.m. (Martian time) on these days, in order to“Ensure uniform lighting”, specifies NASA in the Press release. “While many of our team were at home enjoying the turkey [Thanksgiving, NDLR], Curiosity produced this feast for the eyes ”, comments the JPL scientist.

Immersion in a Martian landscape

This 360 ° panorama is a total success, a masterpiece that opens up the doors to a thrilling immersion in a Martian landscape. The experience is even stronger if you can discover it in 360 video with a virtual reality headset in which you insert your smartphone (Of type Google Cardboard) or otherwise, by browsing it in its high-resolution zoomed version. Either way, it’s a treat: give it a try, you won’t believe your eyes! Fascinating and exotic. Here you are transported to a world drier and colder than Earth. All around you, as far as the eye can see, a desolate ground abandoned by the water billions of years ago.

The site from which all these images were taken, named “Glen Torridon”, is located on the slopes of Mount Sharp, edifice of sedimentary rocks which culminates at 5,500 meters in the center of the Gale crater. Here, at the feet of Curiosity, stretched a lake 3.6 billion years ago.

The mountains that can be seen in the distance are the northern ramparts of Gale crater 150 kilometers in diameter. If you look closely as you move to the left, you will see the small Slangpos crater (4.8 kilometers in diameter). The images are breathtaking.

Find the 360 ​​video version here.

March: breathtaking 360 ° panorama around Curiosity

Article by Remy Decourt published on September 5, 2016

Two magnificent panoramas made from the images captured by Curiosity during various stages along its route which leads it to Mount Sharp. Two different landscapes that you can explore at your leisure, virtually.

Four years, days for days after arriving on Mars, in Gale crater, Curiosity has taken a new panoramic view of its surroundings. The video below, which assembles 130 images captured with the mast camera (MastCam), is interactive. We discover the landscape that the rover crossed throughout the summer of 2016 (on Earth), on its route which leads it to the first foothills Mount Sharp (5,500 meters) whose ascent is the main objective of his mission which began in 2012.

The ground is the bottom of an ancient lake. The water disappeared billions of years ago, leaving deposits of dried up mud. Buttes and mesas which surround it, called “Murray Buttes”, some extend over a width of 60 meters and rise up to 15 meters (Emily Lakdawalla shares on her blog the images processed by Thomas Appéré and Seán Doran where a astronaut was added to the scale). They consist of sandstone, sand brought by the winds and which petrified.

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Initial article published on 05/06/2014 at 11:32

In matter communication, NASA knows how to do it. To obtain the support of the general public for the financing of its programs, even to make it dream, NASA does not hesitate to make public and easily accessible most of the declassified data of its programs. space missions. Result, if the private sector seizes it to offer commercial services (weather forecast for example), many amateurs find their account there. What interests them more than anything are the images.

The Nasa understood it well. Regularly, she suggests that they take part in scientific or census experiments. She uses this community of enthusiasts cheaply, as if to date planetary surfaces by counting craters, to identify objects in the sky and to monitor it. A tedious job which, if it does not delight scientists, delights the most passionate among us.

Regarding Mars, the strategy is to put online almost all the raw images acquired by the probes that revolve around March or the rovers that frolic on its surface. These images are most often accompanied by the information necessary to color them, transform them into anaglyph images or integrate them into panoramas. We remember that it was an amateur, Bard Canning, who directed the film of theCuriosity landing in high definition. He managed to put end to end the images taken from the rover during its landing on Mars on August 6, 2012, to make it such a remarkable film that NASA itself uses it in its communication. Even ufological communities and followers of conspiracy theories of all kinds find their account there. The search for clues of an intelligent extraterrestrial life form is thus greatly favored!

NASA images for science accessible to all

Today, another amateur stands out. Andrew Bodrov, photographer, thus gathered nearly 140 photographs acquired by Curiosity during the same day to realize an incredible panorama around the rover, which illustrates this article. These images were acquired on April 27, 2014 (ground 610) by the Mastcam camera located on the mast of the rover.

And the result is worth lingering over. The resolution is so fine that one can see many details of the geology of the ground like the strata, the outcrops rocky and other rocks of all shapes, some of which are round! a eye practiced will even notice the different conditions of sedimentation.

As for Curiosity, it is located near the sandstone slab called Windjana, where it comes from drill his third hole. Finally, the rover appears surprisingly clean, hardly covered with dust, and no apparent equipment or system appears damaged. Only false note, the curiosity wheels. They are much more worn than expected, but their condition does not seem to have worsened since the discovery of the first perforations in December 2013.