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The Navigation and Terrain Cameras on the Tianwen-1 Mars Rover

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Abstract

The Navigation and Terrain Cameras (NaTeCams) are binocular stereo cameras mounted on the Tianwen-1 Mars Rover. The NaTeCams are primarily designed to provide support for the guidance, navigation, and control of the rover, and they can also be used for scientific observations. NaTeCam is a color imaging system using a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensor (APS). An overview of the camera design is provided. Preflight calibration and performance are also discussed. Specific details about the camera operation and ground test are presented.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is based on work supported by the grand from Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Project, NO. Z191100004319001.

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Correspondence to Li Wang.

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The Huoxing-1 (HX-1) / Tianwen-1 (TW-1) mission to Mars

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Liang, X., Chen, W., Cao, Z. et al. The Navigation and Terrain Cameras on the Tianwen-1 Mars Rover. Space Sci Rev 217, 37 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-021-00813-y

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