NavCam
Illustration — Curiosity's self-portrait shows the deck of the rover as viewed from the NavCams. Navcam, short for navigational camera, is a type of camera found on certain robotic rovers or spacecraft used for navigation without interfering with scientific instruments. Navcams typically take wide angle photographs that are used to plan the next moves of the vehicle or object tracking.
Also recorded as navigational camera · navigation camera
NavCam
NASA/JPL-Caltech · NASA JPL · Public domain
- Field
- image sensor · space instrument
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Illustration — Curiosity's self-portrait shows the deck of the rover as viewed from the NavCams. Navcam, short for navigational camera, is a type of camera found on certain robotic rovers or spacecraft used for navigation without interfering with scientific instruments. Navcams typically take wide angle photographs that are used to plan the next moves of the vehicle or object tracking.
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In this article
Overview
Overview
The Mars Curiosity rover has two pairs of black and white navigation cameras mounted on the mast to support ground navigation. The cameras have a 45 degree angle of view and use visible light to capture stereoscopic 3-D imagery. These cameras, like those on the Mars Pathfinder missions support use of the ICER image compression format. European Space Agency Rosetta spacecraft used a single camera with 5-degree field of view and 12 bit 1024x1024px resolution allowing for visual tracking on each of spacecraft approaches to the asteroids and finally the comet.
Gallery
Gallery
• Illustration — Curiosity rover's mast with two navcams • Illustration — Mars Exploration Rover's mast with two Pancams (on its sides) and two navcams • Illustration — Example of photo made by Opportunitys navcam • Illustration — First photo made by Curiositys navcam
Primary material
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authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q6982202: NavCam
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reference work
- “Navcam”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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