One part of the research program that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit
is conducting while sitting at a favorable location for wintertime solar
energy is the most detailed panorama yet taken on the surface of Mars.
This view is a partial preliminary product from the continuing work on the
full image, which will be called the "McMurdo Panorama."
Spirit's panoramic camera (Pancam) began taking exposures for the McMurdo
Panorama on the rover's 814th Martian day (April 18, 2006). The rover has
accumulated more than 900 exposures for this panorama so far, through all
of the Pancam mineralogy filters and using little or no image compression.
Even with a tilt toward the winter sun, the amount of energy available
daily is small, so the job will still take one to two more months to
complete.
This portion of the work in progress looks toward the north. "Husband
Hill," which Spirit was climbing a year ago, is on the horizon near the
center. "Home Plate" is a between that hill and the rover's current
position. Wheel tracks imprinted when Spirit drove south from Home Plate
can be seen crossing the middle distance of the image from the center to
the right.
This is an approximate true-color rendering combining exposures taken
through three of the panoramic camera's filters. The filters used are
centered on wavelengths of 750 nanometers, 530 nanometers and 430
nanometers.
