High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) is a

camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

on ''

Mars Express ''Mars Express'' is a space exploration mission by the European Space Agency, European Space Agency (ESA) exploring the planet Mars and its moons since 2003, and the first planetary mission attempted by ESA. ''Mars Express'' consisted of two ...

''.DLR – HRSC on Mars Express
A version for

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

called HRSC-AX was also developed, as was a version for

Mars 96 Mars 96 (sometimes called Mars-8) was a failed Mars mission launched in 1996 to investigate Mars by the Russian Space Forces and not directly related to the Soviet Mars probe program of the same name. After failure of the second fourth-stage ...

. It has four main parts: camera head, super resolution channel, instrument frame, and digital unit. At an altitude of 250 km from

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

, SRC can produce images with a resolution of 2.3

meters The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

of 2.35 km square Mars terrain. It has 9 channels and can produce digital terrain models. A typical image from HRSC of Mars has a resolution ranging from 12.5 for nadir (directly down) to 25 m/pixel for the farthest off-nadir shots, which can be up to 18.9 degrees. By 2012, about 61.5% of the surface of Mars was mapped at a resolution of at least 20 meters per pixel by the ''Mars Express'' mission using this camera. Another area of study is repeat imaging, to allow the study of dynamic processes on Mars. Another trick is to make short videos of the Mars surface by taking advantage of the

pushbroom A push broom scanner, also known as an along-track scanner, is a device for obtaining images with spectroscopic sensors. The scanners are regularly used for passive remote sensing from space, and in spectral analysis on production lines, for exa ...

nature of the detector, each section is slightly offset for a different color, but when combined each view be used to make a short animation.TPS – Capturing Martian Weather in Motion – November 4, 2016
/ref> By the start of 2015, about 70% of Mars had been imaged by Mars at resolutions greater than 20 m per pixel, and 97% at resolutions of least 60 m per pixel.THE HIGH RESOLUTION STEREO CAMERA (HRSC): STATUS AND FACTS (2015)
/ref>

Example observation

Orcus Patera Orcus Patera is a region on the surface of the planet Mars first photographed by Mariner 4. Of unknown formation, whether by volcanic, tectonic, or cratering causes, the region includes a depression about long, wide, surrounded by a rim up to h ...

, imaged by the HRSC:

References

External links

ESA – High Resolution Stereo Camera

Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp) and Gale – Image/HRSCview

Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp) – HRSCview
(oblique view looking east)
HRSC + Phobos
(with SRC shots overlaid)
Phobos by HRSC

HRSC Press release archive
(2004–2012)
HRSC with SRC of Victoria Crater and area near ''Opportunity'' rover's landing site

Clouds in Nilokeras Scopulus
* ttps://elib.dlr.de/100711/1/1057.pdf THE HIGH RESOLUTION STEREO CAMERA (HRSC): STATUS AND FACTS (2015) (Includes graph of cumulative surface coverage by resolution, up to 2015) {{Marsexpress Mars Express Spacecraft instruments Mars imagers Stereo cameras

Example observation

See also

References

External links