Television experiment for Mariner Mars 1971

Image resolution and evaluation of genetic hypotheses for planetary landscapes

“…Spatial resolution is often expressed as ground resolution, which corresponds to the smallest distance on the target surface that can be resolved as a separate point in an image (Mutch et al, 1976, p. 328). Ground resolution is equivalent to detection resolution, where the presence of an object can be detected but the object cannot be classified (Masursky et al, 1970). Digitally transmitted images have a limiting size that is related to the individual picture elements (pixels), which comprise the scene.…”

“…Photographic products have a limiting resolution that is a function of the grain size of the light-sensitive materials within the film and the optics of the camera system. While not directly equivalent to the pixel size of a digital system, the photographic resolution of a film/camera system can be measured with special targets such as closely spaced pairs of lines (Masursky et al, 1970).…”

“…Identification resolution is the size of a feature that can be identified from its shape (Masursky et al, 1970). Identification resolution varies for different features, depending on how much shape information is required for identification.…”

“…6. has provided images of Mars with increasing resolution: the best ground resolution obtained from U.S. missions to Mars was 730 m/pixel for Mariner 4, 950 m/pixel for the Wide Angle camera and 95 m/pixel for the Narrow Angle camera on Mariners 6 and 7, 400 m/pixel for the Wide Angle camera and 40 m/pixel for the Narrow Angle camera on Mariner 9, and 8 m/pixel for the Viking Orbiter cameras (Masursky et al, 1970;Carr et al, 1972;Snyder, 1979). The new information returned by each mission led to an astounding array of geomorphic hypotheses proposed to explain the complex landforms on Mars.…”

Mars synthetic topographic mapping

“…The basic objectives of this mission were to acquire photography for map ping the red planet and to observe its dynamic characteristics over a period of a minimum of 90 days. The six scientific experiments included two television cameras (one wide angle and one narrow angle), one ultraviolet spectrometer (UVS), one infrared radiometer (IRR), one infrared interferometer spectrometer (IRIS), the S-band radio occultation and the celestial mechanics (Masursky et al, 1970).…”