VIDEO - Stand on the Surface of Mars
Stand on the Surface of Mars: 3D Map Reveals 1.4 million Square Miles of the Red Planet in Unprecedented Detail
Some of our most spectacular views of Mars have been presented on small, skinny strips of imagery. Now, for the first time, scientists have joined these individual 30 to 60 mile (50 to 100km) wide strips to create a single complete 3D map. The new map allows astronomers to 'stand' on planetary surfaces and could help explain how water and lava once flowed across the red planet. Scroll down for video The first mosaic, pieced together by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), comprises 1.4 million square miles (2.3 million square km) of the surface. It covers the vast crater-strewn highland region of the red planet, parts of the Ares Vallis outflow channel, the chaotic Aram Chaos region as well as the Meridiani Planum and Chryse Planitia plains. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/...9122812006.jpg The new map allows scientists to 'stand' on planetary surfaces and could help explain how water and lava once flowed across Mars. Pictured is a colour-coded perspective view showing the topography of the upper course of Ares Vallis near the Chryse Planitia plains Quote:
The mosaic extends over 1,120 miles (1800km) from north to south and 810 miles (1,300km) from east to west. Individual stereo and colour images from a total of 89 Martian orbits were combined to create the map. 'The strips were recorded at varying resolutions, with the sun at different positions and under varying weather conditions,' Jaumann said. 'The challenge was to combine them uniformly and without visible borders to form one large image.' Perspective views look into the Ares Vallis outflow channel or into a crater altered by typical Mars erosion processes typical on Mars. 'At present, you cannot create a better image of the surface of Mars to show, for example, of the effects of flood and drought,' said Jaumann. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/...9122823147.jpg Pictured are parts of the Ares Vallis outflow channel. Constructing a 3D model such as this requires a spacecraft to look at the same surface feature twice at a different angle. HRSC on Mars Express is the only experiment that can do it with just one pass The data for this wide-area topography of Mars was acquired by Mars Express' High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC,) which has been orbiting the red planet since 2003. Nine sensors record the surface of the planet from different angles and make it possible to map our planetary neighbour at high resolution, in colour, and in the third dimension – elevation. HRSC has, during the course of more than 14,000 orbits, recorded and transmitted a total of 293.34 gigabytes of data to Earth. About 97 percent of the planet has been recorded with image resolutions of up to 330ft (100 metres). By around 2018, the team from DLR, wants to represent the whole of Mars as one coherent mosaic. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/...9122958095.jpg Pictured is the the strip up top of MC11, showing the Ares Vallis region, in the context of the rest of the region covered by the DLR's wide area topography survey. By around 2018, the team from DLR, wants to represent the whole of Mars as one coherent mosaic How Scientists Created the Most Detailed Ever Maps of Mars Some of our most spectacular views of Mars have been presented on small, skinny strips of imagery.Now scientists have, for the first time, joined these individual 30 to 60 mile (50 to 100km) wide strips together to create a single complete 3D map. |
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