Posted on 01/12/2007 3:33:00 PM PST by blam
Mars probe may have spotted lost rover
01:02 12 January 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Maggie McKee
Objects just 30 cm across can be seen in this MRO image of Pathfinder's landing site (Image: NASA/JPL/U Arizona)
The 63-centimetre-long Sojourner rover (which appears multiple times in this composite image by Pathfinder) was last seen at a distance of 13 metres from the lander. New orbital images suggest it later came within about 6m, after the lander's death (Image: NASA/JPL/U Arizona)
The most powerful camera ever sent into orbit around Mars has spotted yet another lander lying lifeless on its surface: Mars Pathfinder, which operated for three months in 1997. It may also have found the mission's tiny rover, Sojourner, which appears to have crawled towards Pathfinder after the lander had already died.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which arrived at the planet in March 2006, has previously spotted four spacecraft on the planet's surface – the current rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and the twin 30-year-old Viking landers.
Now, it has used its ultrapowerful camera, called HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment), to identify the Pathfinder lander and scattered hardware from the mission, including the parachute and backshell it used during its descent a decade ago.
The lander and some of these components had been seen before from orbit by NASA's now-lost Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. But HiRISE can resolve details between two and five times as small, imaging objects just under 30 centimetres across.
"Before HiRISE came along, it was a lot like having a state road map to find a neighbourhood address," says geologist Tim Parker of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, US. "Suddenly, it was like having a residential street map, or maybe even photos showing houses so you can recognise them."
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Such images
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
I didn't know Rover was lost....that's is why there are microchips, so you can always find a lost Rover.
Laaaaaaaasie! Come home!
It's the lack of diversity that kills me in these martian photos.
On Earth, early Man found gold on the surface, exposed to the elements. Ditto for iron and coal ("the rock that burns") and salt.
On Mars...nothing. Barren. Where are the gemstones? No diamonds? No opals? No rubies?
Can NASA even take a picture of some quartz on Mars? Flint?
At most I've seen are minerals such as carbonates, silicates, hydroxides, sulfates, hydrothermal silica, oxides, and phosphates. Lots of basaltic rocks, of course.
That would be the Beagle 2 lander that ESA launched in June, 2003 with the Mars Express orbiter. Beagle 2 landed on Christmas day in 2003, but was never heard from again. It was declared lost on February 6, 2004.
In December 2005, ESA announced Beagle 2 may have been spotted on the surface of Mars in enhanced, lower resolution images taken by the camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. The likely location identified is in the vicinity where Beagle 2 was expected to land, Isidis Planitia, an ancient impact basin just north of the equatorial region on Mars.
You're right, Buck W., NASA believes MRO can spot Beagle 2 on the surface and a search has been placed in future work plans for the HiRISE camera.
Lost rover? I never realized Sojourner was lost. It lasted for two months longer than its one month design.
New Mars orbiter spots landing site of 1997 Pathfinder probe
ap on Riverside Press Enterprise | 1/11/07 | AP
Posted on 01/12/2007 12:25:05 AM EST by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1766329/posts
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