Posted on 06/05/2015 9:45:40 PM PDT by BenLurkin
India’s first ever robotic explorer to the Red Planet, the Mars Orbiter Mission, more affectionately known as MOM, has captured an absolutely dazzling array of images of the fourth rock from the Sun.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India’s space agency, has recently published a beautiful gallery of images featuring a variety of picturesque Martian canyons, volcanoes, craters, moons and more.
We’ve gathered a collection here of MOM’s newest imagery snapped by the probes Mars Color Camera (MCC) for the enjoyment of Martian fans worldwide.
The spectacular 3D view of the Arsia Mons volcano, shown above, was “created by draping the MCC image on topography of the region derived from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), one of five instruments on board NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft.
The Arsia Mons image was taken on 1 April 2015 at a spatial resolution of 556 meters from an altitude of 10707 km. Volcanic deposits can be seen located at the flanks of the Mons, according to ISRO.
The view of Pital crater below was released in late May and taken on 23 April 2015. Pital is a 40 km wide impact crater located in the Ophir Planum region of Mars and the image shows a chain of small impact craters. It is located in the eastern part of Valles Marineris region, says an ISRO description. MCC took the image from an altitude of 808 km.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Phobos, one of the two natural satellites of Mars silhouetted against the Martian surface. Credit: ISRO
“Phobos, one of the two natural satellites of Mars”
Naw! It’s an abandoned space ship!
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That’s no moon.
These photos are super sharp. Better then any others I have seen. The cost was also just $73 million. That would be about 20 times less then a NASA mission. Good thing India outsourced it to India....
HiRISE has an extensive catalog of images accumulated over more than a few years, now, with a resolution of .3m/pixel . Nothing against MOM, but let's not get carried away.
Thanks BenLurkin. Extra to APoD.This is interesting by comparison:
DIY Rocket Fly Into Space -- Amateur High Power Solid Model Rocket Launch to Space
After maybe 60 years of looking at this sort of thing, i say, “SO WHAT?”
Where once it was hyped as The New Frontier, it’s now evident that it’s a totaal waste of tiome and treasure.
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