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Close Up Fly Over of Mars Polar Lander Landing Area in False Color
This is one of a series of visualizations showing false-colored renderings of the Martian topography measured by MOLA in the vicinity of the Mars Polar Lander landing site. Blue tones represent elevations of less than 2 kilometers, while reddish tones are greater than about 2.8 kilometers, relative to the mean equatorial height of Mars. The elevation of the landing site is about 2.4 km, midway into the polar layered terrain. The 400 meters (1/4 mile) resolution of the MOLA data gives a smoothed but vertically exaggerated view of the topography. At this scale it is impossible to ascertain the actual roughness at the lander's destination, forcing project directors to make their best guesses based on available data.

Fly over of the Mars Polar Lander landing site in false color, where the colors represent topography as measured by MOLA. White colors indicate elevations in excess of 3012 meters, red shows elevations between 2500 and 3012 meters, yellow shows elevations from 2450 to 2500 meters, dark cyan shows elevations from 2150 to 2450 meters, dark violet shows elevations from 320 to 2150 meters. The topography in these images is vertically exaggerated by a factor of 5.    Fly over of the Mars Polar Lander landing site in false color, where the colors represent topography as measured by MOLA. White colors indicate elevations in excess of 3012 meters, red shows elevations between 2500 and 3012 meters, yellow shows elevations from 2450 to 2500 meters, dark cyan shows elevations from 2150 to 2450 meters, dark violet shows elevations from 320 to 2150 meters. The topography in these images is vertically exaggerated by a factor of 5.

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High altitude view of the Mars Polar Lander landing site in false color, with color representing topography as measured by MOLA.    High altitude view of the Mars Polar Lander landing site in false color, with color representing topography as measured by MOLA.

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Overhead view of Mars Polar Lander landing site in false color, with colors representing topography    Overhead view of Mars Polar Lander landing site in false color, with colors representing topography

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   2560 x1920   TIFF   14 MB


Oblique view of Mar Polar Lander landing site in false color, with colors representing topography    Oblique view of Mar Polar Lander landing site in false color, with colors representing topography

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   2560 x1920   TIFF   14 MB

Video ID: SVS1999-0028 *
Animator: Tom Biddlecome
Studio: SVS
Date Completed: November 22, 1999
Duration: 754 frames, 25.133333 seconds
Scientist: David Smith (NASA/GSFC)
Instrument: MGS/MOLA, Viking
Datasets: Topography
Keywords: Mars
DLESESubject: Space science
Data Collected: MOLA: 1997/09/15-1998/11, Viking: 1976-1980
PAOID: g99-097_space
Story: stories/MOLA_south_pole/index.html
Animation Series: Mars Polar Lander



Please give credit for this visualization to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio


*Please note: the SVS does not fulfill requests for copies of the tapes in our library. On some of our animation pages, there is a direct link to a video distribution service from which tapes, handled by the Public Affairs Office (PAO)/Goddard TV, including some of our animations may be ordered. General information on this service can be found here.


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