High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) is a cameraexperiment on Mars Express.[1] A version for Earth called HRSC-AX was also developed, as was a version for Mars 96.[1] It has four main parts: camera head, super resolution channel, instrument frame, and digital unit.[1] At an altitude of 250 km from Mars, SRC can produce images with a resolution of 2.3 meters/pixel of 2.35 km square Mars terrain.[1] It has 9 channels and can produce digital terrain models.[1] A typical image from HRSC of Mars has a resolution ranging from 12.5 for nadir (directly down) to 25 m/pixel for the farthest off-nadir shots, which can be up to 18.9 degrees.[2]
By 2012, about 61.5% of the surface of Mars was mapped at a resolution of at least 20 meters per pixel by the Mars Express mission using this camera.[3] Another area of study is repeat imaging, to allow the study of dynamic processes on Mars.[2][4] Another trick is to make short videos of the Mars surface by taking advantage of the pushbroom nature of the detector, each section is slightly offset for a different color, but when combined each view be used to make a short animation.[5]
By the start of 2015, about 70% of Mars had been imaged by Mars at resolutions greater than 20 m per pixel, and 97% at resolutions of least 60 m per pixel.[6]
