Stereoscopy.com: 3D-Mars - Mars in Stereo

3D-Mars - Mars in Stereo

So far, there have been two succesful NASA-Missions with remotely-controlled vehicles on Mars.

Mars Pathfinder (December 1996 - March 1998)
The first completed mission in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, rapidly developed planetary missions with highly focused scientific goals, Mars Pathfinder far exceeded its expectations and outlived its primary design life. This lander, which released its Sojourner rover at the martian surface in July 1997, returned 2.3 billion bits of information, including more than 17,000 images and more than 15 chemical analyses of rocks and soil and extensive data on winds and other types of weather. Investigations carried out by instruments on both the lander and the rover suggest that, in its past, Mars was warm and wet, with liquid water on its surface and a thicker atmosphere. The lander and rover functioned far beyond their planned lifetimes (30 days for the lander and 7 days for the rover), but eventually, after about three months on the martian surface, depletion of the lander's battery and a drop in the lander's operating temperature are thought to have ended the mission.

Some of the stereo photos taken during the "Pathfinder" Mission are shown below.

Mars Global Surveyor (November 1996 - present)
During its primary mapping mission from March 1999 through January 2001, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor collected more information than any other previous Mars mission. Today the orbiter continues to gather data in a second extended mission. As of May 1, 2003, it has completed more than 20,000 orbits of Mars and returned more than 137,000 images, 671 million laser-altimeter shots and 151 million spectrometer measurements. Some of the mission's most significant findings include: evidence of possibly recent liquid water at the martian surface; evidence for layering of rocks that points to widespread ponds or lakes in the planet's early history; topographic evidence that most of the southern hemisphere is higher in elevation than most of the northern hemisphere, so that any downhill flow of water and sediments would have tended to be northward; identification of gray hematite, a mineral suggesting a wet environment when it was formed; and extensive evidence for the role of dust in reshaping the recent martian environment. Global Surveyor provided valuable details for evaluating the risks and attractions of potential landing sites for the Mars Exploration Rover missions, and it will serve as a communications relay for the rovers as they descend to land on Mars and afterwards.

In early January 2004, the first rover "Spirit" landed on Mars, with it's sister/brother "Opportunity" scheduled to arrive about two weeks later on the opposite side of the Red Planet. Both Rovers, "Spirit" and "Opportunity", have three stereo cameras on board.

A Panoramic Camera will view the surface using two high-resolution color stereo cameras to complement the rover's navigation cameras. Delivering panoramas of the martian surface with unprecedented detail, the instrument's narrow-angle optics provide angular resolution more than three times higher than that of the Mars Pathfinder cameras. The camera's images will help scientists decide what rocks and soils to analyze in detail, and will provide information on surface features, the distribution and shape of nearby rocks, and the presence of features carved by ancient waterways. The camera's two eyes sit 30 centimeters (12 inches) apart, about 1.5 meters (5 feet) above ground level on the rover's mast. The instrument carries 14 different types of filters, allowing not only full-color images but also spectral analysis of minerals and the atmosphere. Each exposure of each eye produces a digital image 1,028 pixels wide by 1,028 pixels wide. Full-circle panoramas will be mosaics about 24 frames wide and four frames high, for a combined image full of fine detail even if enlarged to the size of a giant movie screen.

Hazard-Identification Cameras ride low on the front and rear of the rover. The cameras are in stereo pairs at each location in order to produce threedimensional information about the terrain before or behind the rover. Each hazard-identification camera provides a fisheye wide-angle view about 120 degrees across. They are sensitive to visible light and yield black-and-white pictures. Onboard navigation software can analyze the images from these cameras to identify obstacles and avoid them. The front pair of hazard identification cameras provides position information to help movement of the rover's arm and placement of arm-mounted tools on target rocks.

The Navigation Camera is another stereo pair of black-and-white cameras. Like the panoramic camera, it sits on top of the mast and can rotate and tilt. Unlike the panoramic camera, it shoots wider-angle images (about 45 degrees across, compared with about 16 degrees across for the panoramic camera) and it does not have changeable filters to produce color images. Because of its wider field of view, the navigation camera's images can give a quick full-circle view of the surroundings at each new location that the rover reaches, requiring less data-transmission time than would a full-circle set of panoramic camera images. Engineers and scientists will use those images in planning where to send the rover and where to use the science instruments for more detailed examinations.

3D-Photos from the 2004 "Mars Global Surveyor" Mission:
Rover "Spirit"

This image taken by the hazard avoidance camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's rear lander petal and, in the background, the Martian horizon. Spirit took the picture right after successfully landing on the surface of Mars.

The Photo can be viewed both parallel (above, left two images) or cross-eyed (above, right image pair). See at the bottom of this page for a description on how to view the images.

On the left is the anaglyph version. You can buy Anaglyph Glasses from Reel 3-D Enterprises.

Image credit: NASA/JPL, with Stereo Cropping and Image Enhancement by Stereoscopy.com/Alexander Klein

This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.

The Photo can be viewed both parallel (above, left two images) or cross-eyed (above, right image pair). See at the bottom of this page for a description on how to view the images.

On the left is the anaglyph version. You can buy Anaglyph Glasses from Reel 3-D Enterprises.

Image credit: NASA/JPL, with Stereo Cropping and Image Enhancement by Stereoscopy.com/Alexander Klein

This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.

The Photo can be viewed both parallel (above, left two images) or cross-eyed (above, right image pair). See at the bottom of this page for a description on how to view the images.

On the left is the anaglyph version. You can buy Anaglyph Glasses from Reel 3-D Enterprises.

Image credit: NASA/JPL, with Stereo Cropping and Image Enhancement by Stereoscopy.com/Alexander Klein

This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.

The Photo can be viewed both parallel (above, left two images) or cross-eyed (above, right image pair). See at the bottom of this page for a description on how to view the images.

On the left is the anaglyph version. You can buy Anaglyph Glasses from Reel 3-D Enterprises.

Image credit: NASA/JPL, with Stereo Cropping and Image Enhancement by Stereoscopy.com/Alexander Klein

This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.

The Photo can be viewed both parallel (above, left two images) or cross-eyed (above, right image pair). See at the bottom of this page for a description on how to view the images.

On the left is the anaglyph version. You can buy Anaglyph Glasses from Reel 3-D Enterprises.

Image credit: NASA/JPL, with Stereo Cropping and Image Enhancement by Stereoscopy.com/Alexander Klein

This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.

The Photo can be viewed both parallel (above, left two images) or cross-eyed (above, right image pair). See at the bottom of this page for a description on how to view the images.

On the left is the anaglyph version. You can buy Anaglyph Glasses from Reel 3-D Enterprises.

Image credit: NASA/JPL, with Stereo Cropping and Image Enhancement by Stereoscopy.com/Alexander Klein

This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.

The Photo can be viewed both parallel (above, left two images) or cross-eyed (above, right image pair). See at the bottom of this page for a description on how to view the images.

On the left is the anaglyph version. You can buy Anaglyph Glasses from Reel 3-D Enterprises.

Image credit: NASA/JPL, with Stereo Cropping and Image Enhancement by Stereoscopy.com/Alexander Klein

This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.

The Photo can be viewed both parallel (above, left two images) or cross-eyed (above, right image pair). See at the bottom of this page for a description on how to view the images.

On the left is the anaglyph version. You can buy Anaglyph Glasses from Reel 3-D Enterprises.

Image credit: NASA/JPL, with Stereo Cropping and Image Enhancement by Stereoscopy.com/Alexander Klein

This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.

The Photo can be viewed both parallel (above, left two images) or cross-eyed (above, right image pair). See at the bottom of this page for a description on how to view the images.

On the left is the anaglyph version. You can buy Anaglyph Glasses from Reel 3-D Enterprises.

Image credit: NASA/JPL, with Stereo Cropping and Image Enhancement by Stereoscopy.com/Alexander Klein

3D-Photos from the 1997 "Pathfinder" Mission:
Rover "Sojourner"

Photo 81429

The Photo can be viewed both parallel (above, left two images) or cross-eyed (above, right image pair). See at the bottom of this page for a description on how to view the images.

Image credit: NASA, with Stereo Cropping and Image Enhancement by Stereoscopy.com/Alexander Klein

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How to view the photos in Stereo?

To free view stereographs (stereo pairs of photographs, as seen above) without using equipment, the left eye must look at the left hand picture of the pair and the right eye must look at the right hand picture. This is a difficult thing to do at first as you must look at the picture almost as if it were an object thirty feet away or more. Your eyes should not converge. They should look along parallel tracks, as far as possible, like railway lines that meet at the horizon.

When you look with your eyes this way, it feels strange. But there is nothing unnatural about it. All that happens is that your eyes are focused, as they are thousands of times a day, for seeing something in the distance. However, because the picture you are trying to look at is located only a few inches from you, your brain at first tries to correct what it thinks is an error in your focusing.

You may learn to free view in a few minutes, particularly if you are used to looking at "Magic pictures". Look at the pictures from a few inches away (short-sighted people who can see the pictures clearly from a few inches without their glasses will find it easier to free-view without them).

Parallel Free Viewing Look steadily "through" the picture at an imaginary object about twenty feet away, then move your head back (slowly!!). As you do this, keep the eyes steadily focused at the twenty-foot distance. If you are doing this the right way, instead of two pictures, four pictures will appear. And then the two central pictures will move towards each other, until they merge together as one picture. Now you can see three pictures and your eyes should fix on the central one, which is the 3D photo.
You can, by the way, also take your own stereo photos (although, of course, unfortunately not on Mars). Why not take 3D-photos of your hometown, office, friends and family? Stereoscopy.com, this website, is devoted to all aspects of three-dimensional imaging. Please do not miss all the other exciting pages!

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Oct 17th, 1997

Last modified on January 7, 2004

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