Mission 2020: A Candidate Landing Site in Gusev Crater
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Mission 2020: A Candidate Landing Site in Gusev Crater
ESP_035164_1655  Science Theme: Future Exploration/Landing Sites
As we did for Phoenix in 2008 and the Mars Science Laboratory in 2012, HiRISE has been imaging landing sites for a potential rover mission in 2020.

With HiRISE resolution, mission teams can examine what areas of Mars are flat enough to touchdown safely and also investigate the terrain to satisfy scientific research goals. Gusev Crater, a massive and ancient impact crater, was also the landing site for the rover Spirit in January 2004.

With this image, the science rationale was to investigate nearby opaline silica, carbonates and other aqueous phases.



Written by: HiRISE Science Team (audio: Tre Gibbs)  (2 April 2014)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_036087_1655.
 
Acquisition date
26 January 2014

Local Mars time
15:15

Latitude (centered)
-14.572°

Longitude (East)
175.624°

Spacecraft altitude
263.0 km (163.5 miles)

Original image scale range
26.5 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~80 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
6.8°

Phase angle
66.9°

Solar incidence angle
62°, with the Sun about 28° above the horizon

Solar longitude
81.4°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  45.1°
JPEG
Black and white
map projected  non-map

IRB color
map projected  non-map

Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

JP2
Black and white
map-projected   (770MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (467MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (355MB)
non-map           (445MB)

IRB color
map projected  (143MB)
non-map           (380MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (201MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (192MB)

RGB color
non map           (376MB)
ANAGLYPHS
Map-projected, reduced-resolution
Full resolution JP2 download
Anaglyph details page

DIGITAL TERRAIN MODEL (DTM)
DTM details page

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.