Contribution of High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) data analysis for landing site selection on Mars

Abstract

The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) [1] onboard ESA`s Mars Express (MEX) mission is a multiple line scanner which acquires 5 stereo channels and 4 colors. HRSC data are unique since a single image sequence covers very large areas (typically in the order of 104 km2) at high image resolution (Tab. 1) while providing also stereo information. HRSC stereophotogrammetric data products include high-resolution digital terrain models (DTM) and mapprojected orthoimages [2]. They have proven very useful as base maps for planning and scientific mapping tasks. Accurate georeferencing makes their combination with other spatial datasets straightforward. In the site selection process for Mars landing missions, quantitative 3D information on the surface topography, and particularly information on local surface slopes, is very important [3,4]. Since the swath width of HRSC is ~60 km, the entire size of, e.g., a Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) landing site ellipse (20 km diameter) can be covered by one HRSC scene. We demonstrate the properties of HRSC DTM and slope data for one of the proposed MSL landing sites, and discuss results obtained from preliminary stereo analysis for most of the presently proposed MSL landing site candidates (http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/landingsites).