Hovering over martian landscape

From panoramas to close-ups, from 3D maps to a wheel selfie, the Earth-bound twin of ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover is testing the wide range of photo settings that will deliver the greatest science possible during the ExoMars mission on the Red Planet.

The target over the last few months has been the reddish and grainy, sometimes rocky surface of the Mars Terrain Simulator at the ALTEC premises in Turin, Italy.

This simulated ‘overflight’ of the Mars-like terrain has been rendered using approximate colour and geometric information.

PanCam does not have just one pair, but three ‘science eyes’: one high-resolution and two wide-angle cameras. The two wide-angle cameras are set 50 cm apart and form a stereo pair that images what is in front of the rover from a vantage point about two metres above the ground. Scientists create 3D pictures and depth maps by overlaying simultaneous snapshots.