Application of PRo3D to Quantitative Analysis of Stereo-Imagery Collected During the Mars Utah Rover Field Investigation (MURFI) Analogue Rover Trials

A major component of the payload for NASA¡¦s Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Science Laboratory as well as the upcoming ESA ExoMars 2020 Rover, and NASA Mars 2020 Rover are the panoramic digital stereo-cameras (Pancam, Mastcam, PanCam, Navcam). These are primarily used for imaging rock outcrops along rover traverses in order to characterise their geology. A key focus is on sedimentary rocks that have the potential to contain evidence for ancient life on Mars. Clues to determine ancient sedimentary environ-ments are preserved in sedimentary bedding geometries, sedimentary structures and grain textures and dimen-sions. The panoramic camera systems take stereo im-ages which are co-registered to create 3D point clouds of rock outcrops to be quantitatively analysed [1]. The Mars Utah Rover Field Investigation (MURFI 2016) is a Mars Rover field analogue mission run by the UK Space Agency (UKSA) in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). MURFI 2016 took place between 22nd October and 13th November 2016 and consisted of a science team based in Harwell, UK, and a field team including an instrumented Rover plat-form at the field site near Hanksville (Utah, USA) [2]. The Aberystwyth University PanCam Emulator 3 (AUPE3) camera system [3, 4] was used to collect ste-reo panoramas of the terrain the rover encountered dur-ing the field trials, in order to aid rover traverse and sci-ence target decision making as well as geological analysis.