Posted on 09/29/2006 7:44:27 PM PDT by cabojoe
Mars is ready for its close-up. The highest-resolution camera ever to orbit Mars is returning low-altitude images to Earth from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Rocks and surface features as small as armchairs are revealed in the first image from MRO since the spacecraft maneuvered into its final, low-altitude orbital path. The imaging of the red planet at this resolution heralds a new era in Mars exploration.
The image of a small fraction of Mars' biggest canyon reached Earth on Friday, the beginning of a week of tests for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and other instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
"We are elated at the sharpness of the image, revealing such fine detail in the landscape," said Dr. Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson, who is the principal investigator for this camera. The target area includes the deepest part of Ius Chasma, one portion of the vast Valles Marineris canyon. Valles Marineris is the largest known canyon in the solar system, as long as the distance from California to New York.
The camera returned test images after Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter went into orbit around Mars on March 10, 2006, but those were from altitudes more than eight times as high as the orbiter is flying now. Since March, the spacecraft has shrunk its orbit by dipping more than 400 times into the top of the Martian atmosphere to shave velocity. It is now flying in its final, nearly circular orbit at altitudes of 250 to 316 kilometers (155 to 196 miles). The orbit will remain this shape and size for the mission's two-year primary science phase, which begins in November.
During its primary science phase, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will return more data about the red planet than all previous missions combined, pouring data to Earth at about 10 times the rate of any earlier Mars spacecraft. Scientists will analyze the information to gain a better understanding of the distribution and history of Mars' water -- whether ice, vapor or liquid -- and of the processes that formed and modified the planet's surface.
In addition to the high-resolution camera, the orbiter's science payload includes a mineral-identifying spectrometer, a ground-penetrating radar, a context camera for imaging wide swaths of the surface, a wide-angle color imager for monitoring the entire planet daily, and an instrument for mapping and monitoring water vapor and other constituents in the atmosphere.
For most of October, Mars will be passing nearly behind the sun from Earth's perspective. Communication will be intermittent. Activities will be minimal for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and other spacecraft at Mars during this time, and they will resume in early November.
The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo.
Yes, these are truly exciting and unfortunately dangerous times but what a ride.
You mean like erosion from the months-long dust storms?
Environmental degradation would be much slower on Mars. Some of the features in the pic appear hydrological in origin, but it has been a while since Mars had floods. Note the difference from the largest crater, upper, right of center, a bit fuzzy, and the four crescent pattern midway down on left, much sharper rims. Unless this is an artifact of lighting, at the rate of Martian erosion we can infer, a long, long time elapsed between these strikes.
[Rocks and surface features as small as armchairs are revealed in the first image from MRO since the spacecraft maneuvered into its final, low-altitude orbital path. The imaging of the red planet at this resolution heralds a new era in Mars exploration.]
Awesome, they found armchairs on Mars. That means there really are Armchair Martians!
http://www.aversion.com/bands/armchair/
"That means there really are Armchair Martians!"
Just like us! And everyone was worried about Aliens destroying our culture.
Red Planet's Ancient Equator Located
Scientific American (online) | April 20, 2005 | Sarah Graham
Posted on 04/24/2005 11:18:25 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1390424/posts
OMG - I think I see Helen Thomas's Face on mars
"Rocks and surface features as small as armchairs are revealed in the first image from MRO [...]"
It should be right next to the armchair.
I guess he's implying That the Iranians were from Mars.
Interesting. Directly to the left of "The Face" (about 10km), is another formation that strikes me as looking like a human skull you might find in some archeological dig.
amazing!
A fairly common initial conclusion. However, it might be noted that Mars' atmosphere is deeper than earth's. On top, where the smallest meteorites burn out, Mars' atmosphere is actually denser than earth's.
The larger meteorites, the size that get deeper into earth's atmosphere and those that reach the gound more or less intact, would reach the ground of Mars quite well. The biggest ordinary meteorites, the size that would crater earth's surfac, would also crater Mars' surface.
Some of the ground appears to be highly fractured on a rectangular pattern. Weathering, frost action, or impact? Why rectangular? Frost tends to form hexagonal patterns.
Why?
Interesting question. While the pressure at the surface is one percent or less of earth's surface atmospheric pressure, the gradient decreases more slowly at Mars than at earth. The main ingredient in the equation is the gravity of Mars, which is less than earth's gravity and cannot pull the atmosphere in so tight. Orbital altitude at Mars is twice as high as at earth because the pressure at altitude is higher. Another factor could be that the sunlight is weaker at Mars and would not drive the gas away from the planet as quickly as it does at earth, which would tend to let light concentrations continue to exist at high altitude.
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