Murray Ridge Pan  << back to mosaics

Murray Ridge Pan

        Sitting on the western rim of Endeavour Crater on Mars, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured this view of Murray Ridge. The component images were taken over the span of five sols (Martian days) beginning on sol 3446 (October 3, 2013). Murray Ridge is named in tribute to Bruce Murray (1931 - 2013), a staunch advocate for planetary exploration. Bruce was a team member on many of the early missions to Mars, later served as director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and was one of the founders of The Planetary Society.
        The sprawling interior of Endeavour Crater and far crater wall (about 22 kilometers or 14 miles away) can be seen in the left side of this mosaic, looking roughly east. In the center of the image is Murray Ridge, rising about 130 feet (40 meters) above the surrounding plain. Murray Ridge lies between Solander Point to the north and Cape Tribulation to the south. During imaging, the rover sat near a contact between the Meridiani Planum sandstone and the rocks of the crater rim above. The north facing slope of this location allows the rover's solar panels to tilt toward the sun, providing optimum power for the cold winter days ahead. Orbital observations have indicated the presence of clay minerals further up this slope, which makes it a particularly interesting place to explore over the winter.
         Pancam's 753nm, 535nm, and 432nm filters were used to create this mosaic.  Three versions are provided at full resolution: an approximate true color rendering, a false color rendering which enhances the subtle color differences in the scene, and a stereo anaglyph for 3D viewing with red blue glasses.

        

 


Jim Bell
Pancam Instrument Lead
November 19, 2013

Full Resolution Images
True Color Thumb
  Approximate
  True Color   .jpg    .tif
  Image size: 9908 x 3546
 
False Color Thumb
  False Color    .jpg    .tif
  Image size: 9908 x 3546

 
False Color Thumb
  Stereo Anaglyph    .jpg   
  Image size: 9831 x 3490

 
   Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Arizona State University
   Image mosaicking: Jim Bell
   Calibration and color rendering: CCC and the
   Pancam team (Jim Bell)
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