A gallery of the best images captured by the Mars Express Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) during testing and optimisation in 2007. The selection includes a crescent Mars, Mars' rotation and views of the Red Planet's 'volcano family' (we've also included a few images taken by the VMC in 2003).
This animation takes advantage of the large number of VMC imaging opportunities we had during September 2007. The frequency of the images allowed the weather and spinning of Mars to be monitored throughout a whole month. This animation therefore shows 'a month on Mars'. The position of the spacecraft is above the North Pole. The jumps are due to the spacecraft pointing not always being identical. (A possible project would be to decompile the animation and clean and correct the individual images.)
