Thanks again to the MRO, the Viking Lander 2 site has been viewed three times already at nearly the same Mars local time :
- PSP_001501_2280_RED.jp2 taken on 11 November 2006 (w/31.0 cm/pixel resolution) at 3:14 PM ;
- PSP_001976_2280_RED.JP2 taken on 12 December 2006 (w/30.5 cm/pixel resolution) at 3:26 PM ;
- PSP_002055_2280_RED.JP2 taken on 1 January 2007 (w/33.0 cm/pixel resolution) at 3:15 PM.

BUT the 1st image (1501_2280) is a lot blurred at some places due to motions done by the restart of the High Gain Antenna tracking during the image exposure.

Like the process done before for the Viking 1 & Pathfinder landing site images
(links :
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ost&p=97402
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ost&p=97572 ),
the same process was made with the overlap of :
- the 2 last pictures only (1976_2280 & 2055_2280) for the backshell (the 1st one was a lot blurred there) ;
- the 3 pictures for VL2 itself (less blur there on the 1st image)
==> The resulting images are shown at the bottom (with the original images released to the Press on top).

Enjoy !


(next image)

That backshell image is really amazing. I'd say it's the best in terms of observable improvement in resolution of all of these. Great work!

Thanks for your kind comments !
... and I suspect the oval lying on the surface at the left of the backshell to be part of the parachute.

Great stuff yet again, VM!

The fuel tanks really stand out, don't they? Also, you can clearly see the lander is perched on one of those enigmatic ridges, accounting for the 8 deg tilt it had...

The backshell looks so good!

Maybe you could try to make another lander image just from images 2 and 3? Perhaps image 1 introduces some blur. Or maybe the algorithm for combining three images is not as good as the algorithm to combine only two images? Just guessing.

Impressive! It would be really neat if MRO gets any more images of the site to see what more can be pulled.

Perhaps another set of images with different illumination (different time of year or different time of day) would provide complementary details.

On another issue, I notice you've been working with the red channels; are the other color channels available for any of these images? Super res color images would be really striking.

Let me add my congratulations for the excellent work.

Steve

Yes, just like they did for : "Cave entrance on the flank of Arsia Mons", that came down this wwek.
You'll have to ask for such a shot Olivier, you'll have to!