Video: Martian surface flyover

At the Planetary Society, Emily Lakdawalla points to beautiful video of computer generated fly-overs of the Spirit and Opportunity landing sites composed from the actual topological data. There are four altogether - and the file sizes are substantial - but check out this 5 meg file featuring Victoria Crater (Quicktime) and a cameo of Opportunity descending into the crater. Emily also describes how Randy Kirk, planetary geologist working at the Unites States Geological Survey, has derived accurate topology for the virtual flyover:

  Randy Kirk... specializes in the challenges of mapping the topography of planetary surfaces. His and his coworkers' methods, honed over many years, allow them to create topographic maps (and, nowadays, digital elevation models) of places on planets even when they don't have actual topographic data. They do it, most often, through a technique called photoclinometry, also known as shape-from-shading.

Wayne