Visual terrain mapping for Mars exploration

One goal for future Mars missions is to navigate a rover to science targets not visible to the rover, but seen in orbital or descent images. In order to support and improve long-range navigation capabilities, we generate 3D terrain maps using all available images, including surface images from the lander and/or rover, descent images from the lander, and orbital images from current and future Mars orbiters. The techniques used include wide-baseline stereo mapping for terrain distant from the rover, bundle adjustment for high-accuracy mapping of surface images, and structure-from-motion techniques for mapping using descent and orbital images. The terrain maps are compiled using a system for unifying multi-resolution models and integrating three-dimensional terrains.