Jan. 4, 2004
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover “Spirit” successfully landed on Mars earlier today, January 4.
The NASA web site provided a set of raw images along with a few press-friendly photographs, and I wanted to see what a composite panorama would look like.
Of 56 images taken by Spirit’s navigation camera, 26 show the surrounding landscape and sky. Only 13 of those images were required to make the 360° panorama below:
The panorama was then retouched to reduce the dark halo around each photo, flatten the horizon, and balance the overall tone:
On January 6, NASA released Spirit’s first color photograph, shown here overlaid on the retouched panorama:
False color was then added to the rest of the panorama:
Enjoy!
Original images provided by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Exploration Rover Mission.
