IN the extraordinary photograph below, released today, get as close to the reality of landing on Mars as you’ve (most likely) ever been….
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover got its first high-definition look around its new home in Jezero Crater on February 21, 2021 after rotating its mast, or “head,” 360 degrees, allowing the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument to capture its first panorama after touching down on the Red Planet on February 18.
PS. Open the image inside Facebook, and enjoy the full 360 immersive experience. Use your fingers to pinch in to zoom in, or scroll around the screen for more detail.
Editor’s Hugh Hou’s Note /
This 360 photo is a faithful edit from the high-resolution source of Mastcam-Z, a zoomable pair of cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.
The source photo, unfortunately, is not in a 360 immersive format.
I edited it into this 360 immersive format so that you can be on Mars if you have a VR headset like the Oculus Quest 2 – or you can pan around on the Facebook mobile app.
Besides fixing some stitching issues and stretching the sky to fit the standard immersive format, no creative modification has been added to this image – to keep it as close to the original as possible.
Mastcam-Z is a dual-camera system equipped with a zoom function, allowing the cameras to zoom in, focus, and take high-definition video, as well as panoramic color and 3D images of the Martian surface. With this capability, the robotic astrobiologist can provide a detailed examination of both close and distant objects.
The cameras will help scientists assess the geologic history and atmospheric conditions of Jezero Crater and will assist in identifying rocks and sediment worthy of a closer look by the rover’s other instruments. The cameras also will help the mission team determine which rocks the rover should sample and collect for eventual return to Earth in the future.
Stitched together from 142 images, the newly released panorama reveals the crater rim and cliff face of an ancient river delta in the distance. The camera system can reveal details as small as 0.1 to 0.2 inches (3 to 5 millimetres) across near the rover and 6.5 to 10 feet (2 to 3 metres) across in the distant slopes along the horizon.
The detailed composite image shows a Martian surface that appears similar to images captured by previous NASA rover missions. Mastcam-Z’s design is an evolution of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover’s Mastcam instrument, which has two cameras of fixed focal length rather than zoomable cameras. The two cameras on Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z dual cameras are mounted on the rover’s mast at eye level for a person 6 feet, 6 inches (2 meters) tall. They sit 9.5 inches (24.1 centimetres) apart to provide stereo vision and can produce colour images with a quality similar to that of a consumer digital HD camera.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
#CountdownToMars
Source photo (TIFF) resolution: 36952 x 11570
Facebook 360 resolution: 14000 x 7200 (40MB – max resolution Facebook can display)
Further Notes / This is a very high resolution photo, and it is recommended to viewing it with a VR headset, or at least pinch in with your fingers to spot details.
These details will be explained tomorrow on NASA’s NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover livestream. Attend the guided tour Livestream tomorrow around the first high-definition 360-degree view of the Jezero Crater provided by NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover. Mission experts will walk us through the new Martian terrain, explain why it has scientists excited, and a Q&A. Check out NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover for more information.
For more information, please visit NASA at http://go.nasa.gov/3q0aa3T
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
If you have difficulty viewing via Facebook, you can also view the Mars scape here
