PanCam on the ExoMars 2018 Rover: A Stereo, Multispectral and High-Resolution Camera System to Investigate the Surface of Mars

The ExoMars rover will carry a Panoramic Camera System (PanCam) being designed to obtain high-resolution colour and wide-angle multi-spectral stereoscopic panoramic images from the rover mast. The PanCam instrument consists of two wide angle cameras (WACs), which will provide multispectral stereo images with 32.28° field of-view (horizontal / vertical) and a High-Resolution Channel (HRC) to provide monoscopic zoom images with 4.88° field-of-view (horizontal / vertical). Scientific goals include fulfilling the digital terrain mapping requirements of the mission as well as providing multispectral geological imaging, colour and stereo panoramic imaging, water vapour abundance and dust optical depth measurements. The dedicated high-resolution channel allows for zooming into wide angle panoramas as well as image mosaicking and furthermore enables high-resolution imaging of inaccessible locations on crater walls and in valleys and to observe retrieved subsurface samples before ingestion into the Sample Preparation and Distribution System (SPDS) of the Pasteur payload. Combined with a “Rover Inspection Mirror” (RIM), placed at the front end of the rover body, engineering images of the rover underside as well as views of the rover wheels for soil mechanics science or views of the underside of overhanging rock formations, can be acquired with the HRC.