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Mars on Earth II
In this second installment o
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6/15/04
Image of the Week -- IRVE
WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. -- A suc
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8/18/09
| Description |
WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. -- A successful NASA flight test has shown that a spacecraft returning to Earth can use an inflatable heat shield to slow and protect itself as it enters the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. This was the first time anyone has successfully flown an inflatable reentry capsule, according to engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center. The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment, or IRVE, was vacuum-packed into a 15-inch diameter payload "shroud" and launched on a small sounding rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. Nitrogen inflated the 10-foot (3 m) diameter heat shield, made of several layers of silicone-coated industrial fabric, to a mushroom shape in space several minutes after liftoff. "This was a huge success," said Mary Beth Wusk, IRVE project manager, based at Langley. "IRVE was a small-scale demonstrator. Now that we've proven the concept, we'd like to build more advanced aeroshells capable of handling higher heat rates." The Black Brant 9 rocket took about four minutes to lift the experiment to an altitude of 131 miles (211 km). Less than a minute later it was released from its cover and started inflating on schedule at 124 miles (199.5 km) up. The inflation of the shield took less than 90 seconds. "Everything performed well even into the subsonic range where we weren't sure what to expect," said Neil Cheatwood, IRVE principal investigator and chief scientist for the Hypersonics Project of NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Fundamental Aeronautics Program. "The telemetry looks good. The inflatable bladder held up well." Inflatable heat shields hold promise for future planetary missions, according to researchers. To land more mass on Mars at higher surface elevations, for instance, mission planners need to maximize the drag area of the entry system. The larger the diameter of the aeroshell, the bigger the payload can be. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith |
| Date |
8/18/09 |
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Multifunction Mars Base
On their way to perform surf
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3/4/08
| Description |
On their way to perform surface experiments, two residents of the first Martian outpost pause to look at their home. Extensive use of natural Martian resources for propulsion would greatly reduce the cost of establishing such a base, and in addition to continued use for propulsion, material processing plants would provide products that would minimize reliance on the Earth-to-Mars supply line. NASA Glenn is a world leader in space power systems research. acrylic painting by Les Bossinas (Cortez III Service Corp.), 1991 |
| Date |
3/4/08 |
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Flight Over Venus
Now that humans have mastere
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3/4/08
| Description |
Now that humans have mastered atmospheric flight above the Earth, researchers at Glenn have set their sights on flight above our neighboring planets. Venus provides several advantages for flying a solar-powered aircraft. At the top of the cloud level, the solar intensity is comparable to or greater than solar intensities above Earth. The atmospheric pressure would make flight much easier than on planets such as Mars. In addition, Venus' slow rotation would allow an airplane to fly in continuous sunlight, eliminating the need for energy storage for nighttime flight. These factors make Venus a prime choice for a long-duration solar-powered aircraft for scientific research. Exploratory planetary mapping and atmospheric sampling over Venus may lead to a greater understanding of the greenhouse effect not only on Venus but on Earth as well. digital art by Les Bossinas (InDyne, Inc.), 2001 |
| Date |
3/4/08 |
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NASA 360 Episode 5
This episode of NASA 360 con
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2008
| Description |
This episode of NASA 360 contains updates on Mars. Highlights include: the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM, mission as it looks for evidence of water on Mars, using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to look at Earth and explore deep space, exploring the "final frontier" of Earth's atmosphere, using satellites to measure the height of the oceans, and the impact of changing sea levels on human civilizations. This video is a NASA eClips (TM) program. |
| Date |
2008 |
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Traveling to the Moon and St
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This NASA video segment calc
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2008
| Description |
This NASA video segment calculates the distance from Earth to the moon and from Earth to Mars. Drive time by car is used to help bring meaning to these distances. This video also analyzes the temperature and surface of other planets and explains why Mars is targeted for human exploration. The discussion of light years explains how long it would take to travel to the second closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri. This video is a NASA eClips (TM) program. |
| Date |
2008 |
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Traveling to the Moon and St
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This NASA video segment calc
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2008
| Description |
This NASA video segment calculates the distance from Earth to the moon and from Earth to Mars. Drive time by car is used to help bring meaning to these distances. This video also analyzes the temperature and surface of other planets and explains why Mars is targeted for human exploration. The discussion of light years explains how long it would take to travel to the second closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri. This video is a NASA eClips (TM) program. |
| Date |
2008 |
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The Making of the Biosuit
In this NASA video segment a
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2008
| Description |
In this NASA video segment an expert at MIT describes and models a biosuit, a futuristic space suit designed for astronauts who will one day travel to Mars. The biosuit will be very different from the space suits currently used for space travel. It is designed to be form-fitting and lightweight, enabling astronauts to kneel, climb, and maneuver more efficiently. This design also benefits peopl on Earth. This video is a NASA eClips (TM) program. |
| Date |
2008 |
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A-3 First Tree Cutting
Tree clearing for the site o
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6/13/07
| Description |
Tree clearing for the site of the new A-3 Test Stand at Stennis Space center began June 13. NASA's first new large rocket engine test stand to be built since the site's inception, A-3 construction begins a historic era for America's largest rocket engine test complex. The 300-foot-tall structure is scheduled for completion in August 2010. A-3 will perform altitude tests on the Constellation's J-2X engine that will power the upper stage of the Ares I crew launch vehicle and earth departure stage of the Ares V cargo launch vehicle. The Constellation Program, NASA's plan for carrying out the nation's Vision for Space Exploration, will return humans to the moon and eventually carry them to Mars and beyond. |
| Date |
6/13/07 |
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Gullies at the Edge of Hale
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This image from NASA's Mars
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10/6/09
| Description |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows gullies near the edge of Hale crater on southern Mars. Martian gullies carved into hill slopes and the walls of impact craters were discovered several years ago. On Earth, gullies usually form through the action of liquid water -- long thought to be absent on the Martian surface. Whether liquid water carves gullies under today's cold and dry conditions on Mars is a major question that planetary scientists are trying to answer. Gullies at this site are especially interesting because scientists recently discovered actively changing examples at similar locations. Images separated by several years showed changes in the appearance of some of these gullies. Today, planetary scientists are using the HiRISE camera on MRO to examine gullies such as the one in this image for change that might provide a clue about whether liquid water occurs on the surface of Mars. The view covers an area about 1 kilometer, or 0.6 mile, across and was taken on Aug. 3, 2009. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona |
| Date |
10/6/09 |
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Tattooed Mars
This high-resolution picture
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10/26/09
| Description |
This high-resolution picture from the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows twisting dark trails criss-crossing light-colored terrain on the Martian surface. Newly formed trails like these had presented researchers with a tantalizing mystery but are now known to be the work of miniature wind vortices known to occur on the red planet, in other words Martian dust devils. Such spinning columns of rising air heated by the warm surface are also common in dry and desert areas on planet Earth. Typically lasting only a few minutes, dust devils become visible as they pick up loose red-colored dust leaving the darker and heavier sand beneath intact. Ironically, dust devils have been credited with unexpectedly cleaning the solar panels of the Mars rovers. Image Credit: NASA, HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona) |
| Date |
10/26/09 |
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Spirit Stuck in Soft Soil on
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This view from the panoramic
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11/2/09
| Description |
This view from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the terrain surrounding the location called "Troy," where Spirit became embedded in soft soil during the spring of 2009. The hundreds of images combined into this view were taken beginning on the 1,906th Martian day (or sol) of Spirit's mission on Mars (May 14, 2009) and ending on Sol 1943 (June 20, 2009). Near the center of the image, in the distance, lies Husband Hill, where Spirit recorded views from the summit in 2005. For scale, the parallel tracks are about 1 meter (39 inches) apart. The track on the right is more evident because Spirit was driving backwards, dragging its right-front wheel, which no longer rotates. The bright soil in the center foreground is soft material in which Spirit became embedded after the wheels on that side cut through a darker top layer. The composition of different layers in the soil at the site became the subject of intense investigation by tools on Spirit's robotic arm. In recent weeks, Engineers have been using test rovers on Earth to prepare for extracting the sand-trapped Spirit rover. While amnesia-like symptoms in recent days might delay the start of planned drives by Spirit geared towards extricating it, the Mars Exploration Rover team remains hopeful. "If they are intermittent and infrequent, they are a nuisance that would set us back a day or two when they occur. If the condition becomes persistent or frequent, we will need to go to an alternate strategy that avoids depending on flash memory, " said Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In these amnesia events, Spirit fails to record data from the day's activities onto the type of computer memory -- non-volatile "flash" memory -- that can retain the data when the rover powers down for its energy-conserving periods of "sleep." Spirit has worked on Mars for more than 69 months in what was originally planned as a three-month mission. |
| Date |
11/2/09 |
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Rock Garden
This image of a cluster of r
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01/04/10
| Description |
This image of a cluster of rocks labeled 'Rock Garden' is where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit became embedded in April 2009. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed on the Red Planet in January 2004 for what was to be a 90-day mission, but which has lasted 6 Earth years, or 3.2 Mars years. During this time, Spirit has found evidence of a steamy and violent environment on ancient Mars that is quite different from the wet and acidic past documented by Opportunity, which has been operating successfully as it explores halfway around the planet. Spirit used its navigation camera to capture this view of the terrain toward the southeast from the location it reached on the 1,870th Martian day, or sol, on April 7, 2009. Wheels on the western side of the rover broke through the dark, crusty surface into bright, loose, sandy material that was not visible as the rover approached the site. Spirit became stuck in an area near the left of the image's center later in April. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech |
| Date |
01/04/10 |
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Mars Polar Lander
A bottom view of the Mars Po
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| Description |
A bottom view of the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft. The spacecraft will travel 10 months from Earth to Mars to land near the southern polar cap in December 1999 and carry out a three- month mission to search for traces of subsurface water in this frozen, layered terrain. The lander carries three scientific packages: the Mars descent imager, furnished by Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., which will view the landing site at increasingly higher resolution, the atmospheric lidar experiment, provided by Russia's Space Research Institute, which will measure the presence and height of atmospheric hazes, along with a miniature microphone provided by The Planetary Society, to record the sounds of Mars, and the Mars Volatile and Climate Surveyor science package. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Surveyor program, a sustained program of robotic exploration of the red planet, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics is NASA's industrial partner in the mission. ##### |
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Mars Polar Lander
A top view of the Mars Polar
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| Description |
A top view of the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft. The spacecraft will travel 10 months from Earth to Mars to land near the southern polar cap in December 1999 and carry out a three- month mission to search for traces of subsurface water in this frozen, layered terrain. The lander carries three scientific packages: the Mars descent imager, furnished by Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., which will view the landing site at increasingly higher resolution, the atmospheric lidar experiment, provided by Russia's Space Research Institute, which will measure the presence and height of atmospheric hazes, along with a miniature microphone provided by The Planetary Society, to record the sounds of Mars, and the Mars Volatile and Climate Surveyor science package. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Surveyor program, a sustained program of robotic exploration of the red planet, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics is NASA's industrial partner in the mission. ##### |
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1998 Mars Polar Lander
The Mars Surveyor '98 Polar
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5/27/98
| Date |
5/27/98 |
| Description |
The Mars Surveyor '98 Polar Lander is shown during recent deployment and testing of its surface solar panels. The spacecraft will travel 10 months from Earth to Mars to land near the southern polar cap in December 1999 and carry out a three- month mission to search for traces of subsurface water in this frozen, layered terrain. The lander carries three scientific packages: the Mars descent imager, furnished by Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., which will view the landing site at increasingly higher resolution, the atmospheric lidar experiment, provided by Russia's Space Research Institute, which will measure the presence and height of atmospheric hazes, along with a miniature microphone provided by The Planetary Society, to record the sounds of Mars, and the Mars Volatile and Climate Surveyor science package. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Surveyor program, a sustained program of robotic exploration of the red planet, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics is NASA's industrial partner in the mission. Photo copyright 1998, Lockheed Martin ##### |
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1998 Mars Climate Orbiter
The Mars Surveyor '98 Climat
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5/27/98
| Date |
5/27/98 |
| Description |
The Mars Surveyor '98 Climate Orbiter, which is entering the final stages of testing this summer at Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, is shown here during acoustic tests that simulate launch conditions. The orbiter will conduct a two- year primary mission to profile the Martian atmosphere and map the surface. To carry out these scientific objectives, the spacecraft will carry a rebuilt version of the pressure-modulated infrared radiometer, lost with the Mars Observer spacecraft, and a miniaturized dual camera system the size of a pair of binoculars, provided by Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., San Diego, CA. During its primary mission, the orbiter will monitor Mars' atmosphere and surface globally on a daily basis for one Martian year (two Earth years), observing the appearance and movement of atmospheric dust and water vapor, as well as characterizing seasonal changes of the planet's surface. Imaging of the surface morphology will also provide important clues about the planet's climate in its early history. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Surveyor program, a sustained program of robotic exploration of the red planet, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics is NASA's industrial partner in the mission. Photo copyright 1998, Lockheed Martin ##### |
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Mars Polar Lander
The Mars Polar Lander is sho
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| Description |
The Mars Polar Lander is shown on the surface of Mars. The spacecraft will travel 10 months from Earth to Mars to land near the southern polar cap in December 1999 and carry out a three- month mission to search for traces of subsurface water in this frozen, layered terrain. The lander carries three scientific packages: the Mars descent imager, furnished by Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., which will view the landing site at increasingly higher resolution, the atmospheric lidar experiment, provided by Russia's Space Research Institute, which will measure the presence and height of atmospheric hazes, along with a miniature microphone provided by The Planetary Society, to record the sounds of Mars, and the Mars Volatile and Climate Surveyor science package. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Surveyor program, a sustained program of robotic exploration of the red planet, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics is NASA's industrial partner in the mission. ##### |
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MESUR-Pathfinder
In this artist's rendition,
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3/8/93
| Date |
3/8/93 |
| Description |
In this artist's rendition, the MESUR-Pathfinder space vehicle enters the Martian atmosphere and descends to the surface of the planet. After completing the ll-month journey from Earth to Mars and establishing the proper orientation for entry into the Martian atmosphere, the cruise stage containing the equipment used to guide it to Mars is separated from the aeroshell carrying the Pathfinder lander and microrover. The aeroshell enters the atmosphere at a velocity of approximately 6,300 meters per second (14,000 miles per hour). Atmospheric drag resulting from the friction of the aeroshell in the atmosphere causes intense heating of the aeroshell and decelerates the vehicle to approximately 400 meters per second (900 miles per hour) prior to deployment of the parachute. A single parachute is deployed at approximately 10,000 meters (six miles) altitude and separates the lander from the forward portion of the aeroshell which has now been charred by the intense heating. The parachute slows the lander to a velocity of 35 meters per second (78 miles per hour) prior to surface impact. |
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Eruption at Tvashtar Catena
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This pair of images taken by
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2/26/01
| Date |
2/26/01 |
| Description |
This pair of images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft captures a dynamic eruption at Tvashtar Catena, a chain of volcanic bowls on Jupiter's moon Io. They show a change in the location of hot lava over a period of a few months in 1999 and early 2000. The image on the left uses data obtained on Nov. 26 and July 3, 1999, at resolutions of 183 meters (600 feet) and 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) per pixel, respectively. The red and yellow lava flow itself is an illustration based upon imaging data. The image on the right is a composite using a five-color observation made on Feb. 22, 2000, at 315 meters (1030 feet) per pixel. These are among the most fortuitous observations made by Galileo because this style of volcanism is too unpredictable and short-lived to plan to photograph. Short-lived bursts of volcanic activity on Io had been previously detected from Earth-based observations, but interpreting the style of volcanic activity from those lower- resolution views was highly speculative. These Galileo observations confirm hypotheses that the initial, intense thermal output comes from active lava fountains. Galileo's high-resolution observations of volcanic activity on Io have also confirmed other hypotheses based on earlier, low- resolution data. These include interpretations of slowly spreading lava flows at Prometheus and Amirani and an active lava lake at Pele. These tests of earlier hypotheses increase scientists' confidence in interpreting volcanic activity seen in low-resolution remote sensing data of Earth as well as Io. However, these data are still of insufficient resolution to adequately test the more quantitative models that have been applied to volcanic eruptions on Earth and Io. These images also show other geologic features on Io, such as the scalloped margins of the plateau to the northeast of the active lavas. These margins appear to have formed by sapping, a process usually associated with springs of water. Liquid sulfur dioxide might be the fluid responsible for sapping on Io. A better understanding of sapping on Io will influence how scientists interpret similar features on Mars (where the viability of carbon dioxide or water as the sapping fluid remains controversial). Images and data received from Galileo are posted on the Galileo mission home page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo . The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. # # # # # |
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Hubble's Sharpest View Of Ma
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| Description |
Hubble's Sharpest View Of Mars The sharpest view of Mars ever taken from Earth was obtained by the recently refurbished NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This stunning portrait was taken with the HST Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 (WFPC2) on March 10, 1997, just before Mars opposition, when the red planet made one of its closest passes to the Earth (about 60 million miles or 100 million km). At this distance, a single picture element (pixel) in WFPC2's Planetary Camera spans 13 miles (22 km) on the Martian surface. The Martian north pole is at the top (near the center of the bright polar cap) and East is to the right. The center of the disk is at about 23 degrees north latitude, and the central longitude is near 305 degrees. This view of Mars was taken on the last day of Martian spring in the northern hemisphere (just before summer solstice). It clearly shows familiar bright and dark markings known to astronomers for more than a century. The annual north polar carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) cap is rapidly sublimating (evaporating from solid to gas), revealing the much smaller permanent water ice cap, along with a few nearby detached regions of surface frost. The receding polar cap also reveals the dark, circular sea' of sand dunes that surrounds the north pole (Olympia Planitia). Other prominent features in this hemisphere include Syrtis Major Planitia, the large dark feature seen just below the center of the disk. The giant impact basin Hellas (near the bottom of the disk) is shrouded in bright water ice clouds. Water ice clouds also cover several great volcanos in the Elysium region near the eastern edge of the planet (right). A diffuse water ice haze covers much of the Martian equatorial region as well. The WFPC2 was used to monitor dust storm activity to support the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter Missions, which are currently en route to Mars. Airborne dust is most easily seen in WFPC2's red and near-infrared images. Hubble's "weather report" from these images in invaluable for Mars Pathfinder, which is scheduled for a July 4 landing. Fortunately, these images show no evidence for large-scale dust storm activity, which plagued a previous Mars mission in the early 1970s. The WFPC2 was used to observe Mars in nine different colors spanning the ultraviolet to the near infrared. The specific colors were chosen to clearly discriminate between airborne dust, ice clouds, and prominent Martian surface features. This picture was created by combining images taken in blue (433 nm), green (554 nm), and red (763 nm) colored filters. Credit: David Crisp and the WFPC2 Science Team (Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology) Image files in GIF and JPEG format and captions may be accessed on Internet via anonymous ftp from oposite.stsci.edu in /pubinfo. GIF JPEG PRC97-09a Syrtis Major gif/marssm97.gif jpeg/marssm97.jpg Higher resolution digital versions (300 dpi JPEG) of the release photograph are available in /pubinfo/hrtemp: 97-09a.jpg (color) and 97-09abw.jpg (black and white). GIF and JPEG images, captions and press release text are available via World Wide Web at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/97/09.html and via links in http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Latest.html or http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Pictures.html. |
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Hubble Captures A Full Rotat
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Pictures of the planet Mars
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| Description |
Pictures of the planet Mars taken with the recently refurbished NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) will provide the most detailed global view of the red planet ever obtained from Earth. The images were taken by HST's Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 on March 10, 1997, just before Mars opposition, when the red planet made one of its closest to the Earth (about 60 million miles or 100 million km). These pictures were taken during three HST orbits that were separated by about six hours. This timing was chosen so that Mars, with its 24-hour 39-minute day, would rotate about 90 degrees between orbits. This imaging sequence therefore covers most of the Martian surface. These observations will be combined with others planned for March 30 to provide complete coverage. During each orbit, Mars was observed in nine different colors spanning the ultraviolet to the near infrared. The specific colors were chosen to clearly discriminate between airborne dust, ice clouds, and prominent Martian surface features. The color picture shown here was created by combining images taken in blue (433 nm), green (554 nm), and red (763 nm) colored filters. The Martian north pole is at the top (near the center of the bright polar cap) and East is to the right. The center of the disk is at about 23 degrees north latitude, and the central longitudes are near 160, 210, and 305 degrees. These images show the planet on the last day of Martian spring in the northern hemisphere (just before summer solstice). The annual north polar carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) cap is rapidly sublimating, revealing the much smaller permanent water ice cap. This polar cap remnant, along with a few nearby detached regions of surface frost are most obvious in pictures taken through ultraviolet, blue, and green filters. These filters also show numerous bright water ice clouds. The brightest clouds are in the vicinity of the giant volcanos on the Tharsis Plateau (to right of center on left image), and in the giant impact basin, Hellas (near bottom of right-hand image), but a diffuse haze covers much of the Martian tropics as well. The familiar bright and dark markings on the Martian surface are most obvious in images taken through red and near-infrared filters. These images clearly reveal the large, dark, circular "sea" of sand dunes (Olympia Planitia) that surrounds the north pole, as well a number of other familiar features, including the giant Tharsis volcanos. The 16-mile (27 km) high Olympus Mons is near the center of the left-hand image, with Arsia, Povonis, and Ascraeus Mons forming a south-west to north-east line just to its right. The volcano, Elysium Mons is near the center of the middle image. The prominent dark feature just below the center on the disk on the rightmost image is Syrtis Major Planitia. Hubble is being used to monitor dust storm activity to support the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter Missions, which are currently en route to Mars. Airborne dust is most easily seen in WFPC2's red and near-infrared images. Weather reports derived from these observations are particularly valuable for Mars Pathfinder, which is scheduled for a July 4, 1997 landing on the red planet. A preliminary analysis of these HST data reveals enhanced dust activity over the dark Vastitas Borealis region in the northern hemisphere, and over the Noachis Terra and Terra Tyrrhena regions just south of the Martian equator. There is also evidence for airborne dust and ice clouds in the Hellas basin. However, these images show no evidence for large-scale dust storm activity. Credit: David Crisp and the WFPC2 Science Team (Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology) |
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SEASONAL CHANGES IN MARS' NO
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These images, which seem to
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| Description |
These images, which seem to have been taken while NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was looking directly down on the Martian North Pole, were actually created by assembling mosaics of three sets of images taken by HST in October, 1996 and in January and March, 1997 and projecting them to appear as they would if seen from above the pole. This first mosaic is a view which could not actually be seen in nature because at this season a portion of the pole would have actually been in shadow, the last view, taken near the summer solstice, would correspond to the Midnight Sun on Earth with the pole fully illuminated all day. The resulting polar maps begin at 50 degrees N latitude and are oriented with 0 degrees longitude at the 12 o'clock position. This series of pictures captures the seasonal retreat of Mars' north polar cap. October 1996 (early spring in the Northern hemisphere): In this map, assembled from images obtained between Oct. 8 and 15, the cap extends down to 60 degrees N latitude, nearly it's maximum winter extent. (The notches are areas where Hubble data were not available). A thin, comma-shaped cloud of dust can be seen as a salmon-colored crescent at the 7 o'clock position. The cap is actually fairly circular about the geographic pole at this season, the bluish "knobs" where the cap seems to extend further are actually clouds that occurred near the edges of the three separate sets of images used to make the mosaic. January 1997 (mid-spring): Increased warming as spring progresses in the northern hemisphere has sublimated the carbon dioxide ice and frost below 70 degrees north latitude. The faint darker circle inside the cap boundary marks the location of circumpolar sand dunes (see March '97 map), these dark dunes are warmed more by solar heating than are the brighter surroundings, so the surface frost sublimates from the dunes earlier than from the neighboring areas. Particularly evident is the marked hexagonal shape of the polar cap at this season, noted previously by HST in 1995 and Mariner 9 in 1972, this may be due to topography, which isn't well known, or to wave structure in the circulation. This map was assembled from WFPC2 images obtained between Dec. 30, 1996 and Jan. 4, 1997. March 30, 1997 (early summer): The cap has fully retreated to its remnant core of water-ice. This residual cap is actually almost cut into two by a large, horn-shaped canyon called Chasma Borealis which is cut deeply into the polar terrain. The HST images also reveal a curious layered terrain which is evidence of past climatic changes on Mars. The sublimation of all of the carbon dioxide has exposed the ring of dark sand dunes which encircle the North Polar Cap. Outliers of ice persist south of the polar sand sea (between the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions). The bright circular features at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock are ice-filled craters. All images were taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color is constructed from images taken in red (673 nm) , blue (410 nm) and green (502 nm) light. The resolution at the North Pole ranges from about 115 km/pixel in October '96 to about 45 km/pixel in March '97. Credit: Phil James (Univ. Toledo), Todd Clancy (Space Science Inst., Boulder, CO), Steve Lee (Univ. Colorado), and NASA |
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Riding a Trail of Debris
| Title |
Riding a Trail of Debris |
| Description |
This image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the comet Encke riding along its pebbly trail of debris (long diagonal line) between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This material actually encircles the solar system, following the path of Encke's orbit. Twin jets of material can also be seen shooting away from the comet in the short, fan-shaped emission, spreading horizontally from the comet. Encke, which orbits the Sun every 3.3 years, is well traveled. Having exhausted its supply of fine particles, it now leaves a long trail of larger more gravel-like debris, about one millimeter in size or greater. Every October, Earth passes through Encke's wake, resulting in the well-known Taurid meteor shower. This image was captured by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer when Encke was 2.6 times farther away than Earth is from the Sun. It is the best yet mid-infrared view of the comet at this great distance. The data are helping astronomers understand how rotating comets eject particles as they circle the Sun. |
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Birth of an Earth-like Plane
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| Title |
Birth of an Earth-like Planet |
| Description |
This artist's conception shows a binary-star, or two-star, system, called HD 113766, where astronomers suspect a rocky Earth-like planet is forming around one of the stars. At approximately 10 to 16 million years old, astronomers suspect this star is at just the right age for forming rocky planets. The system is located approximately 424 light-years away from Earth. The two yellow spots in the image represent the system's two stars. The brown ring of material circling closest to the central star depicts a huge belt of dusty material, more than 100 times as much as in our asteroid belt, or enough to build a Mars-size planet or larger. The rocky material in the belt represents the early stages of planet formation, when dust grains clump together to form rocks, and rocks collide to form even more massive rocky bodies called planetesimals. The belt is located in the middle of the system's terrestrial habitable zone, or the region around a star where liquid water could exist on any rocky planets that might form. Earth is located in the middle of our Sun's terrestrial habitable zone. Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers learned that the belt material in HD 113866 is more processed than the snowball-like stuff that makes up infant solar systems and comets, which contain pristine ingredients from the early solar system. However, it is not as processed as the stuff found in mature planets and asteroids. This means that the dust belt is made out of just the right mix of materials to be forming an Earth-like planet. It is composed mainly of rocky silicates and metal sulfides (like fool's gold), similar to the material found in lava flows. The white outer ring shows a concentration of icy dust also detected in the system. This material is at the equivalent position of the asteroid belt in our solar system, but only contains about one-sixth as much material as the inner ring. Astronomers say it is not clear from the Spitzer observations if anything is occurring in the icy belt, but they believe it could be a source of water later on for the planet that grows from the inner warm ring. |
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Artist's Conception of Sedna
| Title |
Artist's Conception of Sedna |
| Description |
In this artist's visualization, the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," is shown where it resides at the outer edges of the known solar system. The object is so far away that the Sun appears as an extremely bright star instead of the large, warm disc observed from Earth. All that is known about Sedna's appearance is that it has a reddish hue, almost as red and reflective as the planet Mars. In the distance is a hypothetical small moon, which scientists believe may be orbiting this distant body. |
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Orbit of Sedna
| Title |
Orbit of Sedna |
| Description |
This animation shows the location of the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," in relation to the rest of the Solar System. Starting at the inner Solar System, which includes the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars (all in yellow), the view pulls away through the asteroid belt and the orbits of the outer planets beyond (green). Pluto and the distant Kuiper Belt objects are seen next until finally Sedna comes into view. As the field widens the full orbit of Sedna can be seen along with its current location. Sedna is nearing its closest approach to the Sun, its 10,000-year orbit typically takes it to far greater distances. Moving past Sedna, what was previously thought to be the inner edge of the Oort cloud appears. The Oort cloud is a spherical distribution of cold, icy bodies lying at the limits of the Sun's gravitational pull. Sedna's presence suggests that this Oort cloud is much closer than scientists believed. |
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NASA Connect - Geometry of E
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NASA Connect Video containin
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12/1/99
| Description |
NASA Connect Video containing six segments as described below. NASA Connect Segment involving students participating in an activity to measure and calculate ellipses. The activity explains ellipses and their relation to Earth and Mars. NASA Connect Segme |
| Date |
12/1/99 |
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NASA Connect - Personal Sate
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NASA Connect Video containin
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1/22/04
| Description |
NASA Connect Video containing six segments as described below. NASA Connect Segment exploring the aspects of microgravity and how it affects objects in space. Explores object motion and friction and tests the PSA prototype in accordance with these forces. NASA Connect Segment exploring more aspects of the Personal Satellite Assistant. It explains motion and its relationship with the mass of objects in connection to the PSA. NASA Connect Segment explaining mechanical systems. It also compares and contrasts a mechanical system to the system of the International Space Station and Personal Satellite Assistants. NASA Connect Segment explaining the literary origins of robots. It also explores the development of the robot and how scientists use robots in research and technology. NASA Connect Segment exploring the different types of robots. It also explores robots such as the Mars Rover that scientists at NASA use to explore beyond the Earth. NASA Connect Segment involving students in an activity that investigates volume and surface area in two different cylinders. The video also explains basic mathematical functions to help answer the questions. |
| Date |
1/22/04 |
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NASA Connect - PSA - Rover a
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NASA Connect Segment explori
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1/22/04
| Description |
NASA Connect Segment exploring the different types of robots. It also explores robots such as the Mars Rover that scientists at NASA use to explore beyond the Earth. |
| Date |
1/22/04 |
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NASA SCI Files - Mars
NASA Sci Files segment explo
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5/14/03
| Description |
NASA Sci Files segment exploring Mars and how it is similar and different than the Earth. |
| Date |
5/14/03 |
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NASA Connect - GoE - Ellipti
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NASA Connect Segment involvi
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12/1/99
| Description |
NASA Connect Segment involving students participating in an activity to measure and calculate ellipses. The activity explains ellipses and their relation to Earth and Mars. |
| Date |
12/1/99 |
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NASA Connect - GoE - Navigat
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NASA Connect Segment that ex
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12/1/99
| Description |
NASA Connect Segment that explores how NASA scientists use geometry to navigate spacecraft from Earth to Mars. It also explains the goals and accomplishments of the Viking Mission. |
| Date |
12/1/99 |
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NASA TV's This Week @NASA, M
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NASA Administrator Charles B
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05/14/10
| Description |
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden joined with other NASA volunteers in helping these fifth graders become rocket scientists for day. * NASA assets continue to help scientists track two events causing worldwide environmental and economic concern. * Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers used a helicopter to run a series of tests of the Mars Science Laboratory's landing system. * Thanks to a program at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville-area students are helping scientific and community leaders make better-informed decisions about Lyme disease and how and where this chronic illness is likely to strike the local public.* A new book highlighting some of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope is now available in stores and online. * Thirty-seven years ago, America's first space station, Skylab, was launched into Earth orbit from the Kennedy Space Center atop a Saturn V rocket. A ''dry,'' or empty, third stage of the rocket was completely outfitted as a workshop and laboratory. |
| Date |
05/14/10 |
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August 2006: View of the Pla
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| Description |
August 2006: View of the Planets |
| Full Description |
Just before the eastern sky brightens with sunrise, three planets and the waning crescent moon join the starry twilight tapestry. Then, as the bright stars of Gemini and Orion fade with oncoming dawn, the planets rise and shine. About 45 minutes before sunrise on Aug. 20 to 22 the planets Venus, Mercury and Saturn dance on the ecliptic -- the plane of Earth's orbit and the imaginary line tracing it in the sky. The sun, moon and planets appear to move along this line. Venus, rising an hour and a half before sunrise, is the easiest to see in the morning sky. Two hundred forty-one million kilometers (150 million miles) distant, Venus is Earth-sized. Mercury, at a distance of 183 million kilometers (114 million miles), is the fastest and smallest of the inner planets and appears brighter than the more distant Saturn. Saturn, 1,517 million kilometers (943 million miles) distant, was at conjunction with the sun just two weeks ago and now rises nearly an hour before sunrise. On Aug. 26 and 27, Saturn pairs with much brighter Venus at dawn. What other planets can we see in late August? Mars sets 45 minutes after sunset by month's end but is lost from view in the twilight, while brilliant Jupiter remains prominent as the only planet visible for a few hours during the late August evenings. Credit: NASA/JPL |
| Date |
August 18, 2006 |
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Giant Landslide on Iapetus
| Description |
Giant Landslide on Iapetus |
| Full Description |
A spectacular landslide within the low-brightness region of Iapetus's surface known as Cassini Regio is visible in this image from Cassini. Iapetus is one of the moons of Saturn. The landslide material appears to have collapsed from a scarp 15 kilometers high (9 miles) that forms the rim of an ancient 600 kilometer (375 mile) impact basin. Unconsolidated rubble from the landslide extends halfway across a conspicuous, 120-kilometer diameter (75-mile) flat-floored impact crater that lies just inside the basin scarp. Landslides are common geological phenomena on many planetary bodies, including Earth and Mars. The appearance of this landslide on an icy satellite with low-brightness cratered terrain is reminiscent of landslide features that were observed during NASA's Galileo mission on the Jovian satellite Callisto. The fact that the Iapetus landslide traveled many kilometers from the basin scarp could indicate that the surface material is very fine-grained, and perhaps was fluffed by mechanical forces that allowed the landslide debris to flow extended distances. In this view, north is to the left of the picture and solar illumination is from the bottom of the frame. The image was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 31, 2004, at a distance of about 123,400 kilometers (76,677 miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 78 degrees. Resolution achieved in the original image was 740 meters (2,428 feet) per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . For images visit the Cassini imaging team home page http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
January 7, 2005 |
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Scrutinizing Titan's Surface
| Description |
Scrutinizing Titan's Surface |
| Full Description |
The six close-up views of Titan's surface shown here are composed of images acquired by the Cassini spacecraft during flybys in October (see Titan Mosaic: October 2004) and December (see Titan Mosaic: December 2004) of 2004. These close-up views illustrate that a variety of processes have shaped the surface of Titan, just as diverse geologic processes are responsible for what we see on Earth's surface. Image (a) shows a prominent bright-dark boundary near the western edge of the Xanadu region which exhibits a sharp, angular edge between the materials. Three bright, discontinuous circles can be seen (two near the top of the image and another near the lower left). These may be large impact craters, the upper two are approximately 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) in diameter and the lower one is approximately 50 kilometers (20 miles) in diameter. Titan's thick atmosphere will screen out small projectiles, but if the surface were as old as Titan itself, it should have many more craters of these sizes. Therefore, Cassini scientists think that, like Earth's surface, Titan's surface has been modified more recently by other geologic processes. However, such processes on Titan may take much longer than on Earth, acting over hundreds of millions of years. Image (b) shows bright features that appear to be streamlined as if were they formed by winds in Titan's atmosphere moving from west to east. The landing site of the Huygens probe is in the upper left corner of this image (see Cassini's View of Titan Landing Site). Image (c) shows a bright feature surrounded by dark material. Several long, dark and narrow lines running through the bright area may be larger examples of the dark channels seen by the Huygens probe (see Mosaic of River Channel and Ridge Area on Titan). These lines are on the order of 2 kilometers (1 mile) wide, and tens of kilometers long. Image (d) shows dark material within the bright area to the west of Xanadu. The linear nature of these features suggests that they may have formed by faulting. They may be dark due to modification by other surface processes occurring on Titan, in the same way that on Earth, fault-lines can be enhanced by erosion and/or deposition of material by water and wind. Image (e) shows brightness variations in the region southeast of the Huygens landing site. The features indicated by arrows exhibit shapes that are similar to drainage patterns seen on Earth and Mars, where the source of the liquid is underground springs rather than rainfall. Image (f) shows a region near the northwestern edge of Xanadu where the boundary between the bright and dark materials is quite complicated. Here some of the bright patches appear as if they represent thin surface plates that have been broken apart and spread apart over underlying dark material. The white bars above each image are 200 kilometers (124 miles) long. Imaging Titan through its thick atmosphere is a challenge, and the narrow, straight lines within the images, are seams between individual images that have not been completely removed. North is to the top of each frame. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. |
| Date |
March 9, 2005 |
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Eyes on Iapetus!
| Description |
This map of the surface of Iapetus, generated from images taken by NASA's Cassini and Voyager spacecraft, illustrates the imaging coverage planned for Cassini's very close flyby of the two-toned moon on Sept. 10, 2007. |
| Full Description |
This map of the surface of Iapetus, generated from images taken by NASA's Cassini and Voyager spacecraft, illustrates the imaging coverage planned for Cassini's very close flyby of the two-toned moon on Sept. 10, 2007. This flyby will be Cassini's only close approach to Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) during the entire planned mission. At closest approach, Cassini will be 1,640 kilometers (1,020 miles) above the surface of Iapetus. The spacecraft will pass the moon at a speed of about 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) per second--a relatively leisurely pace that will allow plenty of time for the scientific instruments on board to collect massive amounts of data. Cassini's previous encounter with Iapetus, on Dec. 31, 2004, focused on the mysterious territory in Cassini Regio, the region blanketed by dark material that covers most of the moon's leading hemisphere. The upcoming encounter will be primarily concerned with terrain farther west, in the important transition region between Cassini Regio and the bright trailing hemisphere. Scientists hope to learn a great deal more about the composition of the materials that compose the surface of Iapetus during this encounter. Another area of focus is the large equatorial ridge that overlies the moon's equator (see Encountering Iapetus). The ridge reaches 20 kilometers (12 miles) high in some places and extends over 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) in length. No other moon in the solar system has a geological feature like this striking ridge. The tallest mountains on the ridge rival Olympus Mons on Mars, which is approximately three times the height of Mt. Everest. Such giant mountains are a surprising feature for such a small body as Iapetus, which is nearly five times smaller than Mars and nearly nine times smaller than Earth. Colored lines on the map enclose regions that will be covered at different imaging scales as Cassini encounters Iapetus. The highest expected resolution of Cassini images from this flyby is about 20 meters (65 feet) per pixel--significantly higher than the 2004 encounter. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
September 5, 2007 |
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Leaving Earth
| title |
Leaving Earth |
| date |
06.10.2003 |
| description |
This spectacular shot of solid rocket motors separating from a Delta II rocket over Florida was captured during the June 10 liftoff of the Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit. The rover and its twin, Opportunity, will arrive at Mars in January 2004. |
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Mariner 8
| title |
Mariner 8 |
| date |
05.09.1971 |
| description |
Mariner-71H (also called Mariner-H) was the first of a pair of American spacecraft intended to explore the physical and dynamic characteristics of Mars from Martian orbit. The overall goals of the series were to search for an environment that could support life, to collect data on the origin and evolution of the planet, to gather information on planetary physics, geology, planetology, and cosmology, and to provide data that could aid future spacecraft such as the Viking Landers. Launch of Mariner-71H was nominal until just after separation of the Centaur upper stage, when a malfunction occurred in the stage's flightcontrol system, leading to loss of pitch control at an altitude of 148 kilometers at T+4.7 minutes. As a result, the stack began to tumble and the Centaur engines shut down. The stage and its payload reentered Earth's atmosphere approximately 1,500 kilometers downrange from the launch site. |
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Hubble Snaps Mars
| title |
Hubble Snaps Mars |
| date |
08.27.2003 |
| description |
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this close-up of the red planet Mars when it was just 55,760,220 km (34,648,840 miles) away. The picture was taken only 11 hours before Mars made its closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years. The next closest approach is in 2287. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Venera 2
| title |
Venera 2 |
| date |
11.12.1965 |
| description |
Although the 3MV-3 and 3MV-4 type spacecraft were originally intended for Mars exploration, the Soviets re-equipped three of the series, left over from the 1964 Mars launch windows, for Venus exploration in 1965. This particular vehicle was scheduled to fly past the sunlit side of Venus at no more than a 40,000-kilometer range and take photographs. During the outbound flight, communications with the spacecraft were poor. Immediately before closest approach in late February 1966, ground control commanded to switch on all the onboard scientific instrumentation. o The closest approach to the planet was at 02:52 UT on 27 February 1966 at about a 24,000-kilometer range. After its flyby, when the spacecraft was supposed to relay back the collected information, ground control was unable to regain contact. Controllers finally gave up all attempts at communication on 4 March. Venera 2 eventually entered heliocentric orbit. Later investigation indicated that improper functioning of 40 thermal radiator elements caused a sharp increase in gas temperatures in the spacecraft. As a result, elements of the receiving and decoding units failed, the solar panels overheated, and contact was lost. Ironically, the scientific instruments may have collected valuable data, but none of it was ever transmitted back to Earth."Editor's Note: This mission profile was originally published in *Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000*, by Asif A. Siddiqi, NASA Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24" |
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Mars Over Moon
| title |
Mars Over Moon |
| date |
07.18.2003 |
| description |
Ron Wayman of Tampa, Fla., captured this crisp picture of Mars emerging from behind the Moon with an 8-inch telescope and a digital camera. Mars was briefly occulted - hidden from view - by Earth's Moon early on July 17, 2003. *Image Credit/Copyright*: Ron Wayman, Tampa, Fla. |
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Adios Earth
| title |
Adios Earth |
| description |
Well on its way to the Red Planet, Europe's Mars Express snapped this shot of Earth from a distance of about 8 million km (5 million miles). |
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Martian Meteorite
| title |
Martian Meteorite |
| description |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found an iron meteorite, the first meteorite of any type ever identified on another planet. The pitted, basketball-size object is mostly made of iron and nickel according to readings from spectrometers on the rover. Only a small fraction of the meteorites fallen on Earth are similarly metal-rich. Others are rockier. As an example, the meteorite that blasted the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona is similar in composition. "This is a huge surprise, though maybe it shouldn't have been," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity and its twin, Spirit. The meteorite, dubbed "Heat Shield Rock," sits near debris of Opportunity's heat shield on the surface of Meridiani Planum, a cratered flatland that has been Opportunity's home since the robot landed on Mars nearly one year ago. "I never thought we would get to use our instruments on a rock from someplace other than Mars," Squyres said. "Think about where an iron meteorite comes from: a destroyed planet or planetesimal that was big enough to differentiate into a metallic core and a rocky mantle." Rover-team scientists are wondering whether some rocks that Opportunity has seen atop the ground surface are rocky meteorites. "Mars should be hit by a lot more rocky meteorites than iron meteorites," Squyres said. "We've been seeing lots of cobbles out on the plains, and this raises the possibility that some of them may in fact be meteorites. We may be investigating some of those in coming weeks. The key is not what we'll learn about meteorites -- we have lots of meteorites on Earth -- but what the meteorites can tell us about Meridiani Planum." The numbers of exposed meteorites could be an indication of whether the plain is gradually eroding away or being built up. NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Jim Garvin said, "Exploring meteorites is a vital part of NASA's scientific agenda, and discovering whether there are storehouses of them on Mars opens new research possibilities, including further incentives for robotic and then human-based sample-return missions. Mars continues to provide unexpected science 'gold,' and our rovers have proven the value of mobile exploration with this latest finding." Initial observation of Heat Shield Rock from a distance with Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer suggested a metallic composition and raised speculation last week that it was a meteorite. The rover drove close enough to use its Moessbauer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometers, confirming the meteorite identification over the weekend. Opportunity and Spirit successfully completed their primary three-month missions on Mars in April 2004. NASA has extended their missions twice because the rovers have remained in good condition to continue exploring Mars longer than anticipated. They have found geological evidence of past wet environmental conditions that might have, been hospitable to life. Opportunity has driven a total of 2.10 kilometers (1.30 miles). Minor mottling from dust has appeared in images from the rover's rear hazard-identification camera since Opportunity entered the area of its heat-shield debris, said Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., rover project manager. The rover team plans to begin driving Opportunity south toward a circular feature called "Vostok" within about a week. Spirit has driven a total of 4.05 kilometers (2.52 miles). It has been making slow progress uphill toward a ridge on "Husband Hill" inside Gusev Crater. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Mariner Images of Mars
| title |
Mariner Images of Mars |
| description |
These wide-angle images of Mars were laid in place on a globe already containing an indistinct, Earth-based view of Mars. The Mariner 6 pictures make two horizontal rows above, the Mariner 7 pictures extend from center to bottom right and across the south polar cap. The Visual Imaging Investigation (TV experiment) for Mariner 6 and 7 used two cameras on each spacecraft, in order to obtain both broad coverage and high resolution. Camera A, with a wide-angle lens, showed large areas of the planet, 1000 x 1000 kilometers and details as small as 3,000 meters during near encounter. Camera B, with a telephoto lens, showed 100 x 100 kilometer areas and details as small as 300 meters. The cameras operated alternately, with each one taking a picture every 84 seconds. *Image Credit*: Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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New Mars Meteorite
| title |
New Mars Meteorite |
| description |
Scientists believe this small rock - NWA 1669 - was blasted from Mars to the Earth several million or even billions of years ago. Discovered in North Africa, it is one of only 27 known Mars meteorites. *Image Copyright*: Bruno Fectau and Carine Bidaut) |
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Pathfinder Panorama
| title |
Pathfinder Panorama |
| description |
This is a more recent 'geometrically improved, color enhanced' version of the 360-degree 'Gallery Pan', the first contiguous, uniform panorama taken by the Imager for Mars (IMP) over the course of Sols 8, 9, and 10. Different regions were imaged at different times over the three Martian days to acquire consistent lighting and shadow conditions for all areas of the panorama. In this version of the panorama, much of the discontinuity that was due to parallax has been corrected, particularly along thelower tiers of the mosaic containing the Lander features. Distortiondue to a 2.5 degree tilt in the IMP camera mast has been removed. The IMP is a stereo imaging system that, in its fully deployed configuration, stands 1.8 meters above the Martian surface, and has a resolution of two millimeters at a range of two meters. The IMP has color capability provided by 24 selectable filters -- twelve filters per 'eye'. Its red, green, and blue filters were used to take this panorama. The three color images were first digitally balanced according to the transmittance capabilities of a specific high-definition TV device at JPL, and then enhanced via changes to saturation and intensity while retaining the hue. A threshold was applied to avoid changes to the sky. An MTF filter was applied to sharpen feature edges. At left is a Lander petal and a metallic mast which is a portion of the low-gain antenna. On the horizon the double 'Twin Peaks' are visible, about 1-2 kilometers away. The rock 'Couch' is the dark, curved rock at right of Twin Peaks. Another Lander petal is at left-center, showing the fully deployed forward ramp at far left, and rear ramp at right, which rover Sojourner used to descend to the surface of Mars on July 5. Immediately to the left of the rear ramp is the rock 'Barnacle Bill', which scientistsfound be andesitic, possibly indicating that it is a volcanic rock (a true andesite) or a physical mixture of particles. Just beyond Barnacle Bill, rover tracks lead to Sojourner, shown using its Alpha ProtonX-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument to study the large rock 'Yogi'. Yogi, low in quartz content, appears to be more primitive than Barnacle Bill, and appears more like the common basalts found on Earth. The tracks and circular pattern in the soil leading up to Yogi werepart of Sojourner's soil mechanics experiments, in which varying amounts of pressure were applied to the wheels in order to determine physical properties of the soil. During its traverse to Yogi the roverstirred the soil and exposed material from several centimeters indepth. During one of the turns to deploy Sojourner's Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer, the wheels dug particularly deeply and exposed white material. Spectra of this white material show it is virtually identical to the rock 'Scooby Doo', and such white material may underlie much of the site. Deflated airbags are visible at the perimeter of all three Lander petals. Mars Pathfinder was the second in NASA's Discovery, program of low-costspacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet PropulsionLaboratory, Pasadena, CA, developed and manages the Mars Pathfindermission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is anoperating division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).The IMP was developed by the University of Arizona Lunar and PlanetaryLaboratory under contract to JPL. Peter Smith is the Principal Investigator. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Mars Rover Panorama Shows Vi
…
| title |
Mars Rover Panorama Shows Vista From 'Lookout' Point |
| date |
04.29.2005 |
| description |
From a ridgeline vantage point overlooking slopes, valleys and plains, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has returned its latest color panorama of the martian landscape. The approximately true color image shows a full 360-degree view from a site informally named "Larry's Lookout," about halfway up "Husband Hill." Dr. Jim Bell of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., lead scientist for the panoramic cameras on both the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, said, "Spirit and the rover team worked hard over many weeks to get to this vantage point along the flanks of Husband Hill. The rugged ridge and valley terrain seen here is similar in some respects to the view seen months earlier at the 'West Spur,' but the chemistry and mineralogy here are significantly different. Specifically, some of the areas seen here amid the outcrop rocks and in places where the subsurface was exposed by the rover wheels contain the highest sulfur abundances ever measured by Spirit." The view includes the summit of Husband Hill about 200 meters (about 660 feet) southward and about 45 meters (about 150 feet) higher. As Spirit continues uphill, scientists are looking for evidence about whether the intensity of water- related alteration increases with elevation or whether there are pockets of more heavily altered rocks and soils scattered throughout the hills. Spirit's panoramic camera took more than 300 individual frames between Feb. 27 and March 2 that are combined into the big picture. Downloading the frames to Earth took several weeks, and processing took additional time. Imaging specialists at Cornell and at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., calibrated the color and assembled the image. Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, successfully completed three-month primary missions a year ago. In extended missions since then, they have been exploring at increasing distances from their landing sites. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Spirit's "Lookout" panorama is also available online at http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mer_main.html [ http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mer_main.html ]and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] . |
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Sedna's Orbit
| title |
Sedna's Orbit |
| description |
These four panels show the location of the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," which lies in the farthest reaches of our Solar System. Each panel, moving counterclockwise from the upper left, successively zooms out to place Sedna in context. The first panel shows the orbits of the inner planets, including Earth, and the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. In the second panel, Sedna is shown well outside the orbits of the outer planets and the more distant Kuiper Belt objects. Sedna's full orbit is illustrated in the third panel along with the object's current location. Sedna is nearing its closest approach to the Sun, its 10,000-year orbit typically takes it to far greater distances. The final panel zooms out much farther, showing that even this large elliptical orbit falls inside what was previously thought to be the inner edge of the Oort cloud. The Oort cloud is a spherical distribution of cold, icy bodies lying at the limits of the Sun's gravitational pull. Sedna's presence suggests that this Oort cloud is much closer than scientists believed. *Image Credit*: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech) |
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