Break out the 3D glasses for a Martian double feature

Victoria Jaggard, physical sciences news editor

(Images: NASA/JPL/James Canvin)

This picture is the first full-resolution 3D image from the navigational cameras on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, taken shortly after the robot had lifted up its mast on sol 2 of its 98-week mission (a sol is a Martian solar day, which lasts for 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds).

The view shows a pebble-strewn surface with the mountainous rim of Gale crater rising in the distance.

To create the eye-popping shot, NASA combined newly received data from the rover's twin navcams, which sit on the remote-sensing mast's WALL-E-like head. These cameras act like left and right eyes for capturing stereo views of the Martian landscape (see images below).

From the left navcam...

...and the right

The navcams can see out to 100 metres and will be used not only to plan the rover's path forward but also for deciding where to aim the MastCam and ChemCam.

MastCam can take colour pictures, video and stitched panoramas, while ChemCam will fire a laser from up to 7 metres away to vaporise rocks and analyse their composition via spectroscopy.

Once the team completes calibrating the cameras, they'll instruct the navcams to take a 360-degree panorama, helping rover drivers get a good hard look at the landing site before driving off toward their main science target, the intriguing mountain inside Gale nicknamed Mount Sharp.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/222ee1d7/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C0A80C3d0Enavcam0Ecuriosity0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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