* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Mars Reconnaissance orbiter

Blobrana · L

"Victoria Crater" at Meridiani Planum

Blobrana · L

RE: Mars Reconnaissance orbiter

Blobrana · L

HiRISE Camera on NASA Orbiter Gets Spectacular View of Rover at Victoria Crater
With stunningly powerful vision, the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken a remarkable picture that shows the exploration rover Opportunity poised on the rim of Victoria crater on Mars.

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Blobrana · L

New images from the High Resolution Science Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached Earth on Friday, Sept. 29, and Saturday, Sept. 30.

North Polar Layered Deposits TRA_000825_2665 2006-Sep-29
Cerberus Fossae TRA_000827_1875 2006-Oct-02
Yardangs in the Medusae Fossae Formation TRA_000828_1805 2006-Oct-02
Polygonal Terrain in the Northern Plains TRA_000828_2495 2006-Oct-02
The Floor of Niger Vallis: Bearer of Ancient Floodwaters? TRA_000830_1440 2006-Oct-02
Contacts Between Light and Dark Material in Meridiani Planum TRA_000833_1800 2006-Oct-02
Aram Chaos TRA_000834_1835 2006-Oct-02
HiRISE Sample of Dust-Covered Olympus Mons Lava Flows TRA_000838_1945 2006-Oct-02
Southern edge of Elysium Planitia TRA_000840_1810 2006-Oct-02
Polar Layers Near Chasma Boreale TRA_000840_2750 2006-Oct-02

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Blobrana · L

Rocks and surface features as small as armchairs are revealed in the first image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since the spacecraft manoeuvred into its final, low-altitude orbital path. The imaging of the red planet at this resolution heralds a new era in Mars exploration.

Credit: NASA/JPL/UA

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this image during its first day of test imaging from the spacecraft's low-altitude mapping orbit, Sept. 29, 2006.

This image of Mars' north polar layered deposits was taken during the summer season (solar longitude of 113.6 degrees), when carbon dioxide frost had evaporated from the surface. The bright spots seen here are most likely patches of water frost, but the location of the frost patches does not appear to controlled by topography. Layers are visible at the right side of the image, mostly due to difference in slope between them. The variations in slope are probably caused by differences in the physical properties of the layers. Thinner layers that have previously been observed in these deposits are visible, and may represent annual deposition of water ice and dust that is thought to form the polar layered deposits. These deposits are thought to record global climate variations on Mars, similar to ice ages on Earth. HiRISE images such as this should allow Mars' climate record to be inferred and compared with climate changes on Earth.

This image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on September 29, 2006. Shown here is the full image, centred at 86.5 degree latitude, 172.0 degrees east longitude. The image is oriented such that north is to the top. The range to the target site was 298.9 kilometres. At this distance the image scale is 59.8 centimetres per pixel (with two-by-two binning} so objects about 1.79 metres across are resolved. In total the original image was 12.2 kilometres (10024 pixels) wide and 6.1 kilometres ( 5000 pixels) long. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:30 PM and the scene is illuminated from the southwest with a solar incidence angle of 63.5 degrees, thus the sun was about 26.5 degrees above the horizon.

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Blobrana · L

Image TRA_000823_1720 was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on September 29, 2006. Shown here is a small portion of the full image. The full image is centred at -7.8 degrees latitude, 279.5 degrees East longitude. The image is oriented such that north is to the top. The range to the target site was 297 km. At this distance the image scale is 25 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~75 cm across are resolved. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:30 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 59.7 degrees, thus the sun was about 30.3 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 113.6 degrees, the season on Mars is Northern Summer / Southern Winter.

Blobrana · L

First HiRISE Image of Mars from Mapping Orbit: Ius Chasma, Valles Marineris

MRO's HiRISE camera captured its first image of Mars in the mapping orbit, demonstrating the full resolution capability. The image was acquired at 8:16 AM (Pacific time), and parts of the image became available to the HiRISE team at 1:30 PM. With the spacecraft at an altitude of 280 km, the image scale is 29.7 cm/pixel.

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Credit NASA

This sub-image covers a small portion of the floor of Ius Chasma, one branch of the giant Valles Marineris system of canyons. The image illustrates a variety of processes that have shaped the Martian surface. There are bedrock exposures of layered materials, which could be sedimentary rocks deposited in water or from the air. Some of the bedrock has been faulted and folded, perhaps the result of large-scale forces in the crust or from a giant landslide. The darker unit of material at right includes many rocks. The image resolves rocks as small as 90 cm (3 feet) in diameter. At bottom right are a few dunes or ridges of windblown sand. If a person was located on this part of Mars, he or she would just barely be visible in this image.

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-- Edited by Blobrana at 00:53, 2006-09-30

Blobrana · L

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, a mineral mapping instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (CRISM), began observing Mars after its lens cover was opened on Sept. 27, 2006.

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Credit NASA

This image shows one of the first regions of Mars measured after CRISM's cover was opened.
CRISM takes images in two basic formats. The first format is a "targeted image" about 10 kilometres by 10 kilometres, at about 18 metre per pixel, in 544 colours covering wavelengths of 0.36 to 3.92 micrometres. The second format is a lower-resolution strip 10 kilometres wide and thousands of kilometres long, at 200 metres per pixel, in 72 colours. Many thousands of these "multispectral survey" strips are used to build a global map.
The image is part of the second multispectral survey strip, taken at 22:36 UTC on Sept. 27, 2006. Only minimal processing of the data has been done at this early point in the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's mission. The strip crosses part of the north polar region named Olympia Undae, and stretches between 76.7 north latitude, 141.9 east longitude and 85.5 north, 115.8 east. From the top, the northern end of the image crosses layers of dusty and clean ice in the north polar cap. Moving south the image covers dusty sedimentary deposits, dark sand dunes, and outlying polar ice deposits. (The thumbnail shown here covers only the northernmost part of the full image.

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Blobrana · L

HiRISE CAMERA WILL TAKE FIRST CLOSE-UP PICTURES OF MARS ON SEPT. 29

The most powerful camera ever to orbit Mars will get its first close look at the Red Planet on Friday.
The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera flying aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will relay its first low-altitude images to scientists at The University of Arizona beginning Friday afternoon, Sept. 29.

"It's exciting because it's the first time we'll see Mars while the spacecraft is orbiting at about 300 kilometres above the planet's surface" - Professor Alfred S. McEwen, HiRISE principal investigator and UA.

The HiRISE camera is the most powerful telescopic camera ever sent to another planet. The camera took its first impressive test images of Mars when it was as far as 2,500 kilometres away from the planet last March, just before MRO began "aerobraking." Aerobraking involved sending the bus-sized spacecraft through Mars' upper atmosphere 426 times between early April and Aug. 30. The technique successfully lowered MRO close to its final science orbit. This manoeuvre would have required an extra 600 kilograms of fuel if thrusters had been used.
The spacecraft fired six thrusters to reach final science orbit on Sept. 11. The orbit crosses near Mars' north and south poles at altitudes ranging from 250 kilometres to 316 kilometres above the surface.
The HiRISE team has been working at top speed to prepare for the low-orbit images they'll get between Sept. 29 and Oct. 6.

"What makes these next test images exciting for our team is that this time, our effective resolution (sharpness) will be 10 times better. We're going to see some tremendous detail" - HiRISE Operations Centre (HiROC) manager Eric Eliason.

The Sept. 29 - Oct. 6 observing opportunity will be the first time that MRO will use the onboard targeting algorithm and procedures that point the spacecraft at their desired targets. The check-out is designed to test all the observing modes so that there is a smooth start to the primary science phase in November.

"The north polar cap and the Phoenix Mission landing region are our big priority targets for the early science phase, and so we've included them on our targeting check-out" - Professor Alfred S. McEwen.

The NASA Scout-class Phoenix Mission is an international lander mission led by UA's Peter Smith. It is slated for launch in August 2007 for a May 2008 touchdown in Mars' north polar region.

"HiRISE's best chance for photographing candidate Phoenix mission landing sites is in October and November because the sun is getting lower as northern Mars moves into fall" - Professor Alfred S. McEwen.

Fogs and hazes will likely degrade viewing by early 2007.
Other imaging targets include about 40 other locations which sample a wide variety of landscapes. The HiRISE team plans to get its first image on Sept. 29 of Ius Chasma, a complex floor that is part of Valles Marineris, a giant canyon system far larger than Arizona's Grand Canyon.
Engineers will turn off the HiRISE camera for a solar conjunction that starts the second week of October. Solar conjunction is when the sun is aligned between Earth and Mars. It will obstruct communications with the spacecraft for about three weeks.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched August 12, 2005, will provide more science data than all previous Mars missions combined. Among its many objectives is a search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time. Other Mars missions have shown that water flowed across the surface in Mars' history. But whether water was ever around long enough to provide a habitat for life remains a mystery.
The HiRISE team uses ISIS-3 software developed and maintained by the U.S.G.S.-Flagstaff for processing its images at HiROC. HiROC is located in the C. P. Sonett Space Sciences Building, 1541 E. University Blvd, on the UA campus.