Curiosity's hazard avoidance and navigation cameras contain Teledyne DALSA-built CCDs.
The first images from Curiosity came via the machine’s Hazard-Avoidance cameras or Hazcams.
These cameras are responsible for making sure Curiosity doesn’t run into any bad obstacles, and can take black-and-white 1-megapixel images of the area underneath and near the rover.
There are eight Hazcams arranged in pairs on the probe’s front and back, because it can just as easily drive backwards as forwards.
Each camera has a wide-field, fish-eye lens that provides a 124-degree view of the surrounding terrain.
The Hazcams were sheltered behind transparent protective covers immediately after landing, in anticipation of the dust that was kicked up during touchdown, which is why those initial pictures were so splotchy.
Those dust covers will be shot off with a small pyrotechnic device to get clearer images. When the rover gets moving, the front Hazcam pairs will take 3D images of possible targets to help scientists plan the motion of Curiosity’s sample-collecting arm.
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