Abstract
High-resolution optical cameras have always been important scientific payloads in Mars exploration missions, which can obtain detailed images of Martian surface for the study of geomorphology, topography and geological structure. At present, there are still many challenges for Mars high-resolution images in terms of global coverage, stereo coverage (especially for colour images), and data processing methods. High Resolution Imaging Camera (HiRIC) is a high-quality, multi-mode, multi-functional, multi-spectral remote sensing camera that is suitable for the deep space developed for China’s first Mars Exploration Mission (Tianwen-1), which was successfully launched in July 2020. Here we design special experiments based on the in-orbit detection conditions of Tianwen-1 mission to comprehensively verify the detection capability and the performance of HiRIC, from the aspects of image motion compensation effect, focusing effect, image compression quality, and data preprocessing accuracy. The results showed that the performance status of HiRIC meets the requirements of obtaining high resolution images on the Martian surface. Furthermore, proposals for HiRIC in-orbit imaging strategy and data processing are discussed to ensure the acquisition of high-quality HiRIC images, which is expected to serve as a powerful complementation to the current Mars high-resolution images.
Highlights
Image and topography data are some of the most important exploration data of planetary and deep space exploration, and are the important basic for studying the internal structure and surface evolution history of terrestrial planets (Carr 2007; Ren et al 2019)
HRSC is unique in terms of its imaging principle, in that concomitant digital terrain models (DTMs) and multiple orthoimages can be derived based on its standard mode of operation, and in its specific geometric resolution
HRSC images obtained by its 9 color charge-coupled devices (CCDs) line sensors mounted in parallel have almost achieved Mars global coverage, in which the spatial resolution of images covering 70% of the Martian surface reaches 10 ∼20 m, and the spatial resolution of images in 97% of the coverage area is better than 100 m (Gwinner et al 2016)
Summary
Image and topography data are some of the most important exploration data of planetary and deep space exploration, and are the important basic for studying the internal structure and surface evolution history of terrestrial planets (Carr 2007; Ren et al 2019). CaSSIS is intended to acquire moderately high resolution (4.6 m/pixel) targeted images of the Mars at a rate of 10∼20 images per day from a roughly circular orbit 400 km above the surface, which can be comparable or superior to all currently operational orbiting cameras apart from HiRISE, and only MOC had superior resolution (Thomas et al 2017) Up to this time, high-resolution cameras for international Mars exploration missions have acquired significant numbers of images on the Martian surface, which have greatly enriched our understanding of the Mars (Keszthelyi et al 2008; Oberst et al 2008; Malin et al 2010; McEwen et al 2010; Thomas et al 2017).
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