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NASA's Mars Exploration Program (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Sol 4148: A Mastcam MegaMosaic
The images for panorama obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 30,000 pixels width, includes 349 images taken on Sol 4148 (April 7, 2024).
Curiosity continues to drive south along the eastern margin of the upper Gediz Vallis ridge and will pause over the weekend for Mastcam to snap over 350 images that will be stitched together to create a beautiful 360-degree mosaic. Our current location along the rover’s traverse provides the optimal position for this postcard view because the rover is parked along a bend in the ridge between “Fascination Turret” and “Hinman Col” to the north, and “Pinnacle Ridge” to the south. The 360-degree mosaics are some of my favorite data products and this one will surely be a stunner!
In addition to the Mastcam 360-degree mosaic, we will investigate a light-toned block in the workspace with fractures, or breaks, named “Ahwahnee.” Curiosity will brush the surface of “Ahwahnee” with the Dust Removal Tool (DRT) and will characterize the rock with APXS and images from MAHLI. Mastcam will collect small stereo mosaics of the contact between the Mt. Sharp bedrock and the upper Gediz Vallis ridge materials, and of a light-toned target, “Fleming Mountain,” that was described by a science team member as a rock with an “elephant-skin” texture. ChemCam LIBS will investigate the chemistry of a smooth, dark rock in the workspace, a target that was named “Thunder Mountain” despite its small stature. After completing a ~20-meter drive over the bumpy and tilted bedrock surface, we will take some post-drive imaging. The second science block is untargeted, and therefore includes a ChemCam AEGIS measurement that will add another data point to our ongoing bedrock survey. The Environmental Theme Group planned several observations including a ChemCam passive sky survey, a dust devil movie, and a zenith, suprahorizon, and Mastcam tau that will measure the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere. Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy Other panoramas of Mars by Curiosity rover:
Planetary Geologist at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
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The planet Earth has proven to be too limiting for our awesome community of panorama photographers. We're getting an increasing number of submissions that depict locations either not on Earth (like Mars, the Moon, and Outer Space in general) or do not realistically represent a geographic location on Earth (either because they have too many special effects or are computer generated) and hence don't strictly qualify for our Panoramic World project.But many of these panoramas are extremely beautiful or popular of both.So, in order to accommodate our esteemed photographers and the huge audience that they attract to 360Cities with their panoramas, we've created a new section (we call it an "area") called "Out of this World" for panoramas like these.Don't let the fact that these panoramas are being placed at the Earth's South Pole fool you - we had to put them somewhere in order not to interfere with our Panoramic World.Welcome aboard on a journey "Out of this World".
