April 2010
April 1st, 2010Historical Photo of the Month – April 2010
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Mariner Mars 1971 Photo Mosaic
Photograph Number 211-4293A
Before there were computers and software that could stitch together digital images, they were printed on photo paper, trimmed by hand, and taped in place on a large black board, according to a detailed diagram of the spacecraft’s photo coverage of a planet. This preliminary mosaic was then photographed and used to provide a rough view of coverage, show latitude and longitude of geographical features, and show gaps in coverage. Additional mosaics were later created with filtered, corrected, and enhanced photos, and more precise scale and placement.
In 1972, Patricia “Patsy” Conklin worked in the Bioscience and Planetology Section (826). She was one of the people at JPL who assembled Mariner 9 photos into large mosaics. JPL produced 96 mosaic boards of selected areas of the martian surface, and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) created others. A photo mosaic was also created on a four-foot globe.
More Mariner 9 photos, finished mosaics, and the globe can be seen in a photo album at https://library.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/211/211-3812_To_211-4421.pdf (JPL internal access only). For more information about Mariner 9 and image mosaics, contact the JPL Archives for assistance. [Archival and other sources: JPL TR 32-1550, JPL TM 33-585, JPL telephone directory.]
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