Outcrop

This mosaic was acquired by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity between Sols 4998 (February 14, 2018) and 5015 (March 3, 2018). Approximately 265 degrees along the widest point, the view shown here is of some interesting outcrop nearby the rover. The center-right portion of this panoramic scene features the rocky feature La Salinera. Tracks from where the rover drove across the Martian surface are visible in the far left of this view showcasing Dona Ana, the rocky outcropping that Opportunity drove over.

The shadow of Pancam head and other parts of the rover in some of the center bottom frames in this mosaic appear to be stereoscopic in appearance due to the setting sun positioned behind Opportunity during the image capture process changing the shadow length. The apparent waviness of this panorama is caused by the rotation of Pancam on its mast while the rover was on the side of a steep slope. When the mosaic arcs up, Pancam is looking uphill, and when it arcs down, Pancam is looking downhill towards the crater floor.

NOTE: Missing data and other artifacts in this mosaic are the result of the images being acquired while the Opportunity rover was operating in "RAM mode". That is, because of issues with the rover's onboard Flash memory storage, sometimes data are stored directly in the rover's volatile RAM memory instead, and then downlinked to Earth. At the end of each sol of RAM mode operations, however, when the rover shuts down, all of that sol's data is erased. Thus, any missing images, missing color channels, or data transmission errors cannot be fixed by retransmitting the missing data the following sol, like we can do during Flash mode operations.

Pancam's 753 nm, 535 nm, and 432 nm filters were used in making 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 through red-blue glasses.

Jim Bell
Pancam Instrument Lead
May 29, 2018