Posted on 09/04/2009 3:23:04 PM PDT by decimon
PASADENA, Calif. -- Thousands of newly released images from more than 1,500 telescopic observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a wide range of gullies, dunes, craters, geological layering and other features on the Red Planet.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the orbiter recorded these images from the month of April through early August of this year. The camera team at the University of Arizona, Tucson, releases several featured images each week and periodically releases much larger sets of new images, such as the batch posted today.
The new images are available at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/releases/sept_09.php .
Each full image from HiRISE covers a strip of Martian ground 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) wide, about two to four times that long, showing details as small as 1 meter, or yard, across.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been studying Mars with an advanced set of instruments since 2006. It has returned more data about the planet than all other past and current missions to Mars combined. For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro .
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.
Guy Webster 818-354-6278 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov
Lori Stiles 520-626-4402 University of Arizona, Tucson lstiles@u.arizona.edu
Shoot, does anyone know how to turn on iMac graphics so that I can see these? I’m back on my old clunker after my very last laptop died.
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“turn on iMac graphics”?!?
Cool. Just plain cool. I have been fascinated with Mars since childhood and can’t get enough pics and info about the planet.
:’) I wholeheartedly agree.
There are just two planets besides Earth where humans of the living generations have a shot of planting a boot (and the US Flag), Mercury and Mars. Some of the larger asteroids, as well as some of the moons of the gas giant planets, might also be on that list, but it’s a mighty long way to any of those. Building a large, mass-produced, robotic landing program to be first to get to the more distant ones and study them (as well as plant the Flag in order to have grounds for claims later) is something I’d like to see.
In my modest view ;’) human missions to Mars should start with putting a space station into orbit around Mars, giving astronauts a way to explore the surface from orbit using a large number of robotic surface rovers and so on, as well as a long-term habitat and safe haven, all while building a wealth of experience with very long space voyages to and from, and without the risk of a direct ascent to landing and (attempted) direct ascent back to Earth.
A mission to Mercury should be a follow-on from a long-term presence of astronauts in the vicinity of Mars and those to-and-from voyages. It might be practical to put a station in orbit around Mercury (though it might not be as well), but regardless, having a large “yacht” to cruise to and from Mercury, do science from orbit, and land and take off again using a much smaller vehicle that’s carried along with the “yacht” is an approach that would be incremental.
A Mars station would be a probably larger version of just such a “yacht”, but built specifically for more or less permanent Mars orbit. It would be sent via a long, dull, slow trajectory, with no crew, and the crews could be sent back and forth with fast movers. Human missions to Mercury have the luxury of a short orbital period, meaning multiple windows in a given year. Both experiences (Mercury and Mars) will be needed and useful for deeper space missions, such as the asteroid belt (humans to Ceres for example) or Jupiter (nearly 2000 times farther than our Moon).
Walking on a sandy beach here.
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