The Planetary Society Blog
By Emily Lakdawalla
More Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter views of Opportunity
Nov. 29, 2006 | 18:23 PST | Nov. 30 02:23 UTC
Thirteen more HiRISE images were released today, and I am still scraping my jaw off the floor. Their clarity and detail astounds. I actually got sad looking through these pictures, knowing that there is absolutely no way I can ever see all the beautiful features visible in these images. There's just too many of them, and they're too amazing. I don't even know if the lucky people who get to work on this camera full-time will be able to take the time to really look at all the details in all these images.
For today, I'll just show you some of the incredible bits of views they just released from the Opportunity landing site. HiRISE already imaged Opportunity during the transitional phase of the mission. HiRISE just got a second image that encompasses the entire Opportunity traverse. That means, of course, that you can see the lander, backshell, parachute, and heat shield:
Opportunity lander in Eagle CraterThis image shows Eagle crater and the "empty nest" of Opportunity's lander. Credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona | Opportunity's parachute as seen by HiRISEThe bright irregularly-shaped feature in this image is Opportunity's parachute. Near the parachute is the cone-shaped backshell, which helped protect the lander during its 7-month journey to Mars. Dark surface material may have been disturbed when the backshell touched down, exposing the lighter-toned materials seen next to the backshell. Credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona | Opportunity's heat shield as seen by HiRISEThis image shows the impact point and the broken remnants of Opportunity's heat shield, which protected the spacecraft during its fiery descent through the Martian atmosphere. The heat shield was released from the spacecraft during the final stages of the descent, breaking into two pieces when it hit the Martian surface. Also visible is the small crater formed at the heat shield's impact point. The rover visited its heat shield during a drive southward from Endurance crater. Credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona |
I've downloaded the entire 600 Megabyte image and clipped out segments at full resolution that show the entire rover traverse. If you'd like to search for rover tracks or just enjoy the overhead views of Opportunity's traverse, have at them:
Backshell to Endurance (0.87 MB)
Endurance to Vostok (1.97 MB)
Vostok to Erebus Highway (1.64 MB)
Erebus to middle of Etched Terrain (1.83 MB)
Etched Terrain to Beagle (1.26 MB)
Beagle to Victoria (1.2 MB)
I took out two tiny pieces of the images to see how far Opportunity has moved in the time that separated the two HiRISE observations. Here's a look flickering back and forth between the two. I wonder how many times HiRISE will get a look at Opportunity's position at Victoria Crater. These two observations are sufficient for image processing wizards to create a high-resolution Digital Elevation Model of Victoria crater, which will allow the same wizards to create fantastic 3D views of the crater and the rover.Two HiRISE views of Opportunity at Victoria CraterThis image shifts between two HiRISE views of Opportunity on the rim of Victoria Crater taken on October 3 and November 14, 2006 (Sols 957 and 998). Between these two dates, Opportunity drove from Cape Verde to Cape St. Mary. Credit: NASA / JPL / U. Arizona / Emily Lakdawalla |
These images are really cool but there are better ones in store of strange natural environments on Mars. More tomorrow!
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