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Mars Space Exploration

Curiosity Rover’s Stunning 360-Degree View Atop Mont Mercou on Mars

The view of the Curiosity Mars rover atop Mont Mercou
The view of the Curiosity Mars rover atop Mont Mercou

NASA has published a stunning 360-degree view atop Mont Mercou of the Curiosity Mars rover. The panorama is stitched together from 132 individual images taken on April 15, 2021, the 3,090th Martian day (or sol) of the mission. You can see the amazing panorama by using the arrows in the top left on the video, or by clicking (or touching) and dragging your cursor or mouse, moving the view up/down and right/left.

The images have been white-balanced so that the colors of the rock materials resemble how they would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Images of the sky and rover hardware were not included in this terrain mosaic (they appear black).

Mont Mercau is a small stratified cliff about 7 meters (23 feet) high and 15 meters (50 feet) long. It offers a great view of Gale Crater below.

Curiosity Rover’s Stunning 360-Degree View Atop Mont Mercou on Mars – to interact, use the top left (or pinch) controls to zoom in and out of the image. Click (or touch) and drag your cursor to move around in the image This stunning panorama was provided by The rover’s Mast Camera or Mastcam. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, United States built and operates Mastcam. A division of Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built the Curiosity rover and manages the Curiosity rover for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Please note: Not all browsers support viewing 360 videos. YouTube supports their playback on computers using Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera browsers. For the best experience on a mobile device, play this video in the YouTube app.

At the start of March, the Curiosity began approaching an impressive rock formation that scientists dubbed “Mont Mercou”, a nickname taken from a mountain in France, located near the village of Nontron in the southeast of the country.

Then the Martian rover climbed on top of the cliff and provided the amazing panorama above (and below).

The view of the Curiosity Mars rover atop Mont Mercou
The view of the Curiosity Mars rover atop Mont Mercou
Highest-Resolution Mars Panorama by the NASA's Curiosity Rover (2019) - 2

Related: Highest-Resolution Mars Panorama Yet by the Curiosity Rover

Curiosity Rover’s selfie with Mont Mercou

Previously, on March 30, 2021, NASA has published a selfie of the Curiosity Mars Rover with Mont Mercou.

Curiosity Mars Rover's selfie with Mont Mercou
Curiosity Mars Rover’s selfie with Mont Mercou. Image: NASA
The panorama is made up of 60 images from the MAHLI camera on the rover’s robotic arm along with 11 images from the Mastcam on the mast, or “head,” of the rover.

Sources

M. Özgür Nevres
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Özgür Nevres

By M. Özgür Nevres

I am a software developer and a science enthusiast. I was graduated from the Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Computer Engineering. In the past, I worked at the Istanbul Technical University Science Center as a science instructor. I write about the planet Earth and science on this website, ourplnt.com. I am also an animal lover! I take care of stray cats & dogs. This website's all income goes directly to our furry friends. Please consider supporting me on Patreon, so I can help more animals!

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