La Salinera

This mosaic was acquired by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on Sols 5055 and 5056 (April 13 - 14, 2018).  Tracks from the rover are visible in the top right corner of this approximately 160 degree wide view of La Salinera. The tabular rocks of La Salinera were imaged previously from sols 5041 - 5049 from further back. The apparent curve to this mosaic is caused by the rotation of the cameras 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