Curiosity Mars Rover Crosses Rugged Plateau VR Video Immersive Journalism

NASA”s Curiosity Mars Rover has been on Mars since August 6, 2012, originally launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011. This 360-degree panorama-stitched video was shot by the Curiosity Mar rovers on April 4th, 2016 in the mid-afternoon. The scene is presented with a color adjustment that approximates white balancing, to resemble how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth.

The rover’s goals include exploration of the Martian climate and geology, investigating the role of water, whether Mar could ever have supported life, all other tasks in preparation for future human landing explorations.

Just earlier last month, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has almost completed crossing a stretch of the most rugged and difficult-to-navigate terrain encountered during Curiosity’s 44 months on Mars. The view combines dozens of images taken from a location on top of the “Naukluft Plateau” on lower Mount Sharp, which locates inside the Gale Crater. Gale is a crater on Mars and is is 154 km (96 mi) in diameter.

However, we couldn’t see anything else rather than terrain images. NASA says the sky and rover hardware were not imaged because the purpose called only for terrain images. This science mosaic is part of long-term campaign to document the geology along the rover’s traverse since landing in August 2012.

For an immersive experience, you can watch 360 degree videos with Cardboard via the YouTube app. Once the 360 video is launched, simply click the Cardboard icon on the lower right corner and insert phone into the Cardboard.