Color Mission Success Pan

09.29.08

Play movie (MP4 - 23Mb)

Full-Circle Color Panorama of Phoenix Lander Deck and Landing Site on Northern Mars, Animation

This view combines more than 500 images taken after NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on an arctic plain at 68.22 degrees north latitude, 234.25 degrees east longitude on Mars.

This movie makes a slow tour around highlights of the image including the landscape and the spacecraft's science deck.

The full-circle panorama in approximately true color shows the polygonal patterning of ground at the landing area, similar to patterns in permafrost areas on Earth. The center of the image is the westward part of the scene. Trenches where Phoenix's robotic arm has been exposing subsurface material are visible in the right half of the image. The spacecraft's meteorology mast, topped by the telltale wind gauge, extends into the sky portion of the panorama.

This view comprises more than 100 different Stereo Surface Imager camera pointings, with images taken through three different filters at each pointing. It is presented here as a cylindrical projection.

More at www.nasa.gov