Posted on 05/31/2016 7:06:44 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Mars will look good in Earth's skies over the next few days -- but not this good. To get a view this amazing, a spacecraft had to actually visit the red planet. Running across the image center, though, is one the largest canyons in the Solar System. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled. Several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon. The featured mosaic was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s. Tomorrow, Mars and Earth will pass the closest in 11 years, resulting in the red planet being quite noticeable toward the southeast after sunset.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: Viking Project, USGS, NASA]
The Big One
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That one feature north of the Grand Canyon looks like a bicycle horn....................
Thanks Red Badger, interesting observation, makes me want to ping the C list.
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500 years from now when we try to make water flow on Mars — it will all drain right into that canyon.
That canyon could be the key to colonization — the lower down, the denser the atmosphere; roofing it over isn’t beyond our technical capabilities right now; cover it, add an Earthlike atmosphere mined in space; add some water. 100s of 1000s could live there fairly soon, for the generations it would take to introduce the same atmosphere from the same sources via bombardment in unoccupied areas.
One would think we could learn a lot by putting a rover
down there.
LOL, I thought it was a Martian, streaming martian smoke, riding an alligator and holding up a trumpet.
But it might be a death ray. I’m not sure.
My guess is, the next rover will be a mostly-autonomous, balloon-based drone, or rather, a family of them, with a couple of overhead comm sats to buffer and relay data.
At first I thought it resembled a Piccolo Trumpet........................
Perhaps a solar powered dirigible.
Interesting, what would it be inflated with?
While it would be affected by the winds, terrain
would not be a problem, and it still could touch down
and take samples too.
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