Mars Imaging Camera (MIC) on board PLANET-B

Mars Imaging Camera (MIC) on board PLANET-B, Japanese Mars mission, is a sm all, compact and lightweight imager. It features three-color linear CCD ali gned with the spacecraft's spin axis and is designed to take two-dimensiona l images of Mars and its satellites using the spacecraft's spin. The total field of view (FOV) of the camera is 360 degree (around the spin axis)x 54.2 degree (along the array). MIC takes one image of designated are a in the total FOV in one spin. The angular resolution of the camera is abo ut 400 urad/pixel which corresponds to a spatial resolution of about 60 m a t the periapsis of 150 km-altitude. Image data can be compressed by JPEG lossy image compression algorithm. Com pression chip set is supplied from CNES of France under international colla boration. Among three imaging modes for inflight operation of MIG, the autonomous tra cking mode is prepared for the encounter with Phobos or Deimos. In this mod e, MIC will track the object moving relative to the spacecraft by analyzing its motion. A series of pre-flight tests of MIC was performed. In this test, the hardwa re performance and the functions of MTC were verified and the data for radi ometric and geometric corrections were obtained. (C) 1999 Published by Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.