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Mars Discoveries: Liquid Wat
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Dr. Mike Malin & Dr. Ken Edg
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12/6/06
The 2001 Mars Odyssey Orbite
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| Description |
The 2001 Mars Odyssey Orbiter is scheduled for launch on April 7, 2001. It will arrive at Mars in October. After a propulsive maneuver into a 25-hour capture orbit, aerobraking will be used over the next 76 days to achieve the 2-hour science orbit. Aerobraking was utilized on the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Polar Orbiter missions. The Orbiter will carry 3 science instruments, the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS), and the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE). THEMIS will map the mineralogy and morphology of the Martian surface using a high- resolution camera and a thermal infrared imaging spectrometer. The GRS will achieve global mapping of the elemental composition of the surface and determine the abundance of hydrogen in the shallow subsurface. The GRS is a rebuild of the instrument lost with the Mars Observer mission. The MARIE will characterize aspects of the near-space radiation environment as related to the radiation-related risk to human explorers. |
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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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Mars '98 Camera
This photograph shows the Ma
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12/1/95
| Date |
12/1/95 |
| Description |
This photograph shows the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter Color Imager, a high resolution camera that will be flown aboard a NASA orbiter in 1998. The camera will be built by Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., San Diego, and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. This tiny instrument consists of two cameras with unique optics and identical focal plane assemblies, data acquisition system electronics and power supplies. The wide-angle camera will acquire daily weather maps of Mars with a surface resolution of 0.8 kilometers up to 7.2 kilometers (0.5 mile to 4.5 miles). The camera produces these maps in five spectral bands, including two ultraviolet bands that will characterize atmospheric ozone and provide global maps of other atmospheric phenomena such as clouds, hazes, dust storms and the polar hood. The medium-angle camera will be used to study selected areas of Mars with a resolution of 40 meters (131 feet) and observe alterations in the planet's surface over time due to changing atmospheric conditions and winds. Ten spectral channels will provide the ability to discriminate both atmospheric and surface features on the basis of composition. The Mars '98 Orbiter mission is tentatively scheduled for launch aboard a Med- Lite expendable launch vehicle in December 1998. The mission will be managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. ##### |
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Richard Cook is the Mars Sur
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| Description |
Richard Cook is the Mars Surveyor Operations project manager. |
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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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Mars '98 Logo
The Mars Surveyor '98 Logo w
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| Description |
The Mars Surveyor '98 Logo was created by David Seal. |
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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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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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NASA Connect - Geometry of E
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NASA Connect Video containin
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1/1/00
| Description |
NASA Connect Video containing six segments as described below. NASA Connect Segment involving students in a classroom activity that measures shadows and uses geometry to determine sizes of angles. NASA Connect Segment explaining questions about Erastothenes, the Earth's circumference, parallel lines, angle relationships, and a transversal. NASA Connect Segment featuring an online activity to show students how to design a planetary observer like the Mars Global Surveyor. NASA Connect Segment explaining surveying and how surveyors use geometry. NASA Connect Segment exploring how the Mars Global Surveyor works and how students survey Mars by using shadows, angles, and geometry. The video also explains how land formations are measured on Mars. NASA Connect Segment explaining how NASA scientists survey Mars with the Mars Global Surveyor. The video also explains aerobraking and how geometry influences this. |
| Date |
1/1/00 |
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NASA Connect - EOM - Planeta
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NASA Connect Segment featuri
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1/1/00
| Description |
NASA Connect Segment featuring an online activity to show students how to design a planetary observer like the Mars Global Surveyor. |
| Date |
1/1/00 |
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NASA Connect - EOM - Surveyi
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NASA Connect Segment explori
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1/1/00
| Description |
NASA Connect Segment exploring how the Mars Global Surveyor works and how students survey Mars by using shadows, angles, and geometry. The video also explains how land formations are measured on Mars. |
| Date |
1/1/00 |
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NASA Connect - EOM - Surveyi
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NASA Connect Segment explain
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1/1/00
| Description |
NASA Connect Segment explaining how NASA scientists survey Mars with the Mars Global Surveyor. The video also explains aerobraking and how geometry influences this. |
| Date |
1/1/00 |
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Spirit's Tracks
| title |
Spirit's Tracks |
| description |
As Spirit descended onto Mars' surface on Jan. 3, 2004 it performed a series of entry, descent and landing actions, leaving visible marks on the surface of Mars. This "path" of Spirit's descent can be seen labeled in this image. This image is a composite of images taken by the camera on Mars Global Surveyor and Spirit's descent image motion estimation system camera. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Viking Checkup
| title |
Viking Checkup |
| date |
05.20.1971 |
| description |
A technician checks the soil sampler on an earlier generation of Mars lander - Viking - in this 1971 photo. Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to land safely on Mars on July 20, 1976. The robotic arm scooped samples of the Martian soil, emptied it into a hopper on the lander, which analyzed it with three scientific instruments. NASA's Viking Lander was designed, fabricated, and tested by the Martin Marietta Corp. of Denver, Colorado, under the direction of the Viking Progect Office at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. The lander drew heavily on the experience gained from the Ranger, Surveyor and the Apollo Programs in the areas of radar, altimeters, facsimile, cameras, soil samplers and landing gear. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Cool Summer
| title |
Cool Summer |
| description |
Mars Global Surveyor captured this wide-angle view of the Martian North Pole in summer. It is one of more than 134,000 images in the Mars Orbiter Camera image gallery. A batch of 10,232 new images were added this week. |
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Mars Global Surveyor Spacecr
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| title |
Mars Global Surveyor Spacecraft |
| date |
10.21.1996 |
| description |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) workers in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) prepare the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft for transfer to the launch pad by placing it in a protective canister. The Surveyor spacecraft (upper) is already mated to its solid propellant upper stage booster (lower), which is actually the third stage of the Delta II expendable launch vehicle that will propel the spacecraft on its interplanetary journey to the Red Planet. Once at Launch Pad 17A on Cape Canaveral Air Station, the spacecraft and booster assembly will be stacked atop the Delta vehicle. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Radar Slice Through Subsurfa
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| title |
Radar Slice Through Subsurface of Equatorial Deposits on Mars |
| description |
This image combining a topographic map viewed obliquely (color portion of image) with a radargram of the subsurface (monochrome portion) shows features of mysterious Martian deposits named the Medusae Fossae Formation. The westward-looking view includes the divide between Martian highlands on the south and lowlands on the north, spanning a range from about 12 degrees south latitude (left edge of image) to 5 degrees north latitude (right edge of image). The deposits of the Medusae Fossae Formation are found in the lowlands along the divide, in the center foreground. The radar sounder on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has revealed echoes from what is interpreted as a boundary between the overlying deposits and underlying lowland plains buried by these deposits. The radar information presented here is from downward-looking radar observations by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS, jointly funded by NASA and the Italian Space Agency) as Mars Express flew a south-to-north path at about 188 degrees east longitude. The topographic map, using 1990s data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter, extends from that transect to about 135 degrees east longitude. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages NASA's roles in Mars Express for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Italian Space Agency/Univ. of Rome/Smithsonian |
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Spirit's Landing Site
| title |
Spirit's Landing Site |
| description |
This image, taken previously by the thermal emission spectrometer onboard Mars Global Surveyor, highlights the same cluster of craters captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit as it descends to Mars. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Phobos' Stickney Crater
| title |
Phobos' Stickney Crater |
| date |
08.19.1998 |
| description |
This image of Phobos, the inner and larger of the two moons of Mars, was taken by Mars Global Surveyor in 1998. This image shows a close-up of the largest crater on Phobos, Stickney, 10 kilometers in diameter. Individual boulders are visible on the near rim of the crater, and are presumed to be ejecta blocks from the impact that formed Stickney. Some of these boulders are enormous, more than 50 meters across. Also crossing at and near the rim of Stickney are shallow, elongated depressions called grooves. This crater is nearly half the size of Phobos, and these grooves may be fractures caused by its formation. Phobos was observed by both the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) and Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES). This image is one of the highest-resolution images (4 meters per pixel) ever obtained of the martian satellite. *Image Credit*: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Malin Space Science Systems |
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Olympus Mons, 1998
| title |
Olympus Mons, 1998 |
| date |
04.25.1998 |
| description |
Olympus Mons is a mountain of mystery. Taller than three Mount Everests and about as wide as the entire Hawaiian Island chain, this giant volcano is nearly as flat as a pancake. That is, its flanks typically only slope 20 to 50. The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) obtained this spectacular wide-angle view of Olympus Mons on Mars Global Surveyor's 263rd orbit, around 10:40 p.m. PDT on April 25, 1998. In the view presented here, north is to the left and east is up. The spacecraft was traveling from north to south (left to right). Although the camera looks straight down (towards the nadir) and cannot be pointed to the side, the wide angle camera has such a large field of view (it sees from horizon to horizon) that, in effect, it provides side looking views. Unlike some other MOC images, that have had to be warped to provide a view as if seen from a certain direction and altitude, this image shows what the camera saw without additional processing. It is easy to imagine that you are looking out a window at the surface of Mars from about 900 km (560 miles) up. The image was taken on a cool, crisp winter morning. The west side of the volcano (lower portion of view, above) was clear and details on the surface appear very sharp. The skies above the plains to the east of Olympus Mons (upper portion of view) were cloudy. Clouds were lapping against the lower east flanks of this 26 kilometers (16 miles) high volcano, but the summit skies were clear. When Mars Global Surveyor attains its Mapping Orbit in March 1999, the MOC wide angle camera system will be used to make daily, global maps of martian clouds and weather systems. The wide angle images will resemble weather satellite pictures of Earth, and will help the Mars science teams plan their observations and test computer-driven Mars weather prediction models. Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. Image Note: This color picture was made using MOC red wide angle image 26301 and blue wide angle image 26302. The green channel was synthesized by averaging the red and blue bands. Color is not the true color of Mars as it would appear to the human eye (the actual colors would be more pale and contrast more subdued) *Image Credit*: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
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High-Resolution MOC Image of
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| title |
High-Resolution MOC Image of Phobos |
| date |
08.19.1998 |
| description |
This image of Phobos, the inner and larger of the two moons of Mars, was taken by the Mars Global Surveyor on August 19, 1998. This image shows a close-up of the largest crater on Phobos, Stickney, 10 kilometers (6 miles) in diameter. Individual boulders are visible on the near rim of the crater, and are presumed to be ejecta blocks from the impact that formed Stickney. Some of these boulders are enormous - more than 50 meters (160 feet) across. Also crossing at and near the rim of Stickney are shallow, elongated depressions called grooves. This crater is nearly half the size of Phobos and these grooves may be fractures caused by its formation. Phobos was observed by both the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) and Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES). This image is one of the highest resolution images (4 meters or 13 feet per picture element or pixel) ever obtained of the Martian satellite. Malin Space Science Systems, Inc. and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Thermal Emission Spectrometer is operated by Arizona State University and was built by Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. *Image Credit*: Erich Karkoschka (University of Arizona Lunar & Planetary Lab) and NASA |
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'Happy Face' Crater
| title |
'Happy Face' Crater |
| date |
03.10.1999 |
| description |
Mars Global Surveyor was greeted with this view of 'Happy Face Crater' smiling back at its camera from its location on the east side of Argyre Planitia. This crater is officially known as Galle Crater, and it is about 215 kilometers (134 miles) across. The picture was taken by the MOC's red and blue wide angle cameras. The bluish-white tone is caused by wintertime frost. Illumination is from the upper left. For more information and Viking Orbiter views of "Happy Face Crater," see http://www.msss.com/education/happy_face/happy_face.html. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Mars River Delta?
| title |
Mars River Delta? |
| description |
A high-resolution TIFF file of this image is available at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04869. Details in a fan-shaped deposit discovered by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter provide evidence that some ancient rivers on Mars flowed for a long time, not just in brief, intense floods. The apron of debris filling the middle of this picture from the spacecraft's Mars Orbiter Camera is a hardened and eroded distributory fan, a type of geological feature that includes river deltas and alluvial fans. Sediments transported through valleys by water on early Mars formed the 13-kilometer-long (8-mile) deposit in the distant past, when it was still possible for liquid water to flow across the martian surface. Mars Orbiter Camera team members published discovery of this feature in the online edition of the journal Science. What is important about it? First, it provides unequivocal evidence that some valleys on Mars experienced persistent flow over considerable periods of time, as rivers do on Earth. Second, because the fan is today a deposit of sedimentary rock, it demonstrates that some sedimentary rocks on Mars were deposited in a liquid environment. Third, the fan's general shape, the pattern of its channels, and its low slopes provide circumstantial evidence that the feature was an actual delta -- that is, a deposit made when a river or stream enters a body of water. If so, this landform is a strong indicator that some craters and basins on Mars once held lakes. Hundreds of other locations on Mars where valleys enter craters and basins have been imaged by the Mars Orbiter Camera, but none has shown landforms like those presented here. The picture is a mosaic of images acquired between August 2000 and September 2003. The area covered 14 kilometer (8.7 miles) by 19.3 kilometers (12 miles). North is up. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left. The spacecraft's narrow-angle camera takes grayscale images, the color added is based on information from a camera on Mars Odyssey. The fan is in an unnamed crater that is 64 kilometers (40 miles) in diameter, at 24.3 degrees south latitude, 33.5 degrees west longitude. The crater lies northeast of a larger one named Holden Crater. The fan is a fossil landform. That is, it is an eroded remnant of a somewhat larger and thicker deposit. The originally loose sediment was turned to rock and then eroded over time to present the features seen today. The channels through which sediment was transported are no longer present. Instead, only their floors remain, and these have been elevated by erosion so that former channels now stand as ridges. The floors of former channels became inverted in this way because they were more resistant to the forces of erosion, indicating they either were more strongly cemented than surrounding materials, or they have more coarse grains (which are harder to remove), or both. *Image Credit*: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
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Rover Tracks on Mars
| title |
Rover Tracks on Mars |
| description |
New imaging techniques enabled Mars Global Surveyor to capture the incredibly detailed images from orbit of the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover's tracks on the surface of Mars. The orbiter entered its third mission extension in September 2004 after seven years of orbiting Mars. The spacecraft entered Mars orbit on Sept. 12, 1997. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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New Gullies on Martian Sand
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| title |
New Gullies on Martian Sand Dune |
| description |
As part of extended-mission science investigation using the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, the camera team is re-imaging many locations where previous observations revealed gullies. The intent is to see if gully-forming processes are operating on Mars at the present time. The team has found one location where a new gully formed on a dune in an unnamed crater in the Hellespontus region of Mars, west of the Hellas Basin. This pair of narrow-angle images from the Mars Orbiter Camera shows the dune as it appeared on July 17, 2002, (left) and as it appeared on April 27, 2005, (right). The nearly three Earth years of intervening time amount to about 1.4 Mars years. During this period, a couple of gullies formed on the dune slip face. It is critical to recognize that the 2002 image was obtained at a time of year when the incident sunlight was coming in from a lower angle, relative to the horizon, than in the 2005 image. If the gullies had been present in 2002, their appearance would be sharper and more pronounced than they are in the 2005 image. The gullies simply did not exist on July 17, 2002. The steep walls of the gully alcove and channels suggests that the sand in this dune is somewhat cohesive, an observation common among martian sand dunes seen by the Mars Orbiter Camera over the past eight years. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS |
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Evidence of Martian Quakes
| title |
Evidence of Martian Quakes |
| description |
One of the many mysteries associated with martian geology is the origin of gullies found at latitudes poleward of 30 degrees latitude. Most of these gullies are found within craters or other depressions, and appear to be related to the bedrock. Several hypotheses have been proposed for their origin, including groundwater seepage and melting at the base of a dust-mantled snow pack. Some middle-latitude gullies are found on sand dunes. These gullies appear to be different from those found on the slopes of craters, but generally have been interpreted to form by similar processes. In the present martian environment, it is difficult to introduce water to the surface. The temperature and atmospheric pressure may permit water to exist, but the rate of heating of the ground and atmosphere, and the amount of energy available to warm the ground or melt snow, are not conducive to such processes. An alternative process of gully formation on these sand dunes involves frozen carbon dioxide trapped in the winter by windblown sand, then subliming rapidly enough for the escaping carbon-dioxide gas to make the sand flow as a gully-cutting fluid. As part of extended-mission science investigation using the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, the camera team is re-imaging many locations where previous observations revealed gullies. The intent is to see if gully-forming processes are operating on Mars at the present time. The team has found one location where a new gully formed on a dune in an unnamed crater in the Hellespontus region of Mars, west of the Hellas Basin. This pair of narrow-angle images from the Mars Orbiter Camera shows the dune as it appeared on July 17, 2002, (left) and as it appeared on April 27, 2005, (right). The nearly three Earth years of intervening time amount to about 1.4 Mars years. During this period, a couple of gullies formed on the dune slip face. It is critical to recognize that the 2002 image was obtained at a time of year when the incident sunlight was coming in from a lower angle, relative to the horizon, than in the 2005 image. If the gullies had been present in 2002, their appearance would be sharper and more pronounced than they are in the 2005 image. The gullies simply did not exist on July 17, 2002. The steep walls of the gully alcove and channels suggests that the sand in this dune is somewhat cohesive, an observation common among martian sand dunes seen by the Mars Orbiter Camera over the past eight years. Wider context for the dune is shown in a mosaic of two images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, encompassing the dark-toned sand dune field on the floor of a crater located near 49.8 degrees south latitude, 325.4 degrees west longitude. In this image, north is approximately up and sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left. More information about this image can be found at: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04290 |
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3-D View of Mars
| Title |
3-D View of Mars |
| Full Description |
This first three-dimensional picture of Mars' north pole enables scientists to estimate the volume of its water ice cap with unprecedented precision, and to study its surface variations and the heights of clouds in the region for the first time. Approximately 2.6 million of these laser pulse measurements were assembled into a topographic grid of the North pole with a spatial resolution of 0.6 miles (one kilometer) and a vertical accuracy of 15-90 feet (5-30 meters). The principal investigator for MOLA is Dr. David E. Smith of Goddard. The MOLA instrument was designed and built by the Laser Remote Sensing Branch of the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at Goddard. The Mars Global Surveyor Mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for the NASA Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. |
| Date |
01/01/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Mars and Syrtis Major
| Title |
Mars and Syrtis Major |
| Full Description |
Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space- based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped these images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images, which, together, show the entire planet. Each view depicts the planet as it completes one quarter of its daily rotation. In these views the north polar cap is tilted toward the Earth and is visible prominently at the top of each picture. The images were taken in the middle of the Martian northern summer, when the polar cap had shrunk to its smallest size. During this season the Sun shines continuously on the polar cap. Previous telescopic and spacecraft observations have shown that this summertime "residual" polar cap is composed of water ice, just like Earth's polar caps. These Hubble telescope snapshots reveal that substantial changes in the bright and dark markings on Mars have occurred in the 20 years since the NASA Viking spacecraft missions first mapped the planet. The Martian surface is dynamic and ever changing. Some regions that were dark 20 years ago are now bright red, some areas that were bright red are now dark. Winds move sand and dust from region to region, often in spectacular dust storms. Over long timescales many of the larger bright and dark markings remain stable, but smaller details come and go as they are covered and then uncovered by sand and dust. The dark feature known as Syrtis Major was first seen telescopically by the astronomer Christiaan Huygens in the 17th century. Many small, dark, circular impact craters can be seen in this region, attesting to the Hubble telescope's ability to reveal fine detail on the planet's surface. To the south of Syrtis is a large circular feature called Hellas. Viking and more recently Mars Global Surveyor have revealed that Hellas is a large and deep impact crater. These Hubble telescope pictures show it to be filled with surface frost and water ice clouds. Along the right limb, late afternoon clouds have formed around the volcano Elysium. |
| Date |
06/30/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
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Mars Climate Orbiter
| Title |
Mars Climate Orbiter |
| Full Description |
The Mars Surveyor '98 Climate Orbiter is shown here during acoustic tests that simulate launch conditions. The orbiter was to conduct a two year primary mission to profile the Martian atmosphere and map the surface. To carry out these scientific objectives, the spacecraft carried 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, California. During its primary mission, the orbiter was to 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 would also provide important clues about the planet's climate in its early history. The mission was 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 was NASA's industrial partner in the mission. Unfortunately, Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere on September 23, 1999, due to a metric conversion error that caused the spacecraft to be off course. |
| Date |
05/27/1998 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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Mars Global Surveyor Prepara
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| Title |
Mars Global Surveyor Preparations |
| Full Description |
At Launch Complex 17A on Cape Canaveral Air Station, the Mars Global Surveyor upper stage booster assembly is being encased in the Delta II payload fairing. Liftoff of the first in a series of U.S. missions to Mars was just days away, with launch preparations proceeding on schedule. Mars Global Surveyor later entered Mars orbit and began a highly successful mission taking high resolution photographs of the Martian surface and making other measurements. |
| Date |
10/29/1996 |
| NASA Center |
Kennedy Space Center |
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Mars Global Surveyor Spacecr
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| Title |
Mars Global Surveyor Spacecraft |
| Full Description |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) workers in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) prepare the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft for transfer to the launch pad by placing it in a protective canister. The Surveyor spacecraft (upper) is already mated to its solid propellant upper stage booster (lower), which is actually the third stage of the Delta II expendable launch vehicle that will propel the spacecraft on its interplanetary journey to the Red Planet. Once at Launch Pad 17A on Cape Canaveral Air Station, the spacecraft and booster assembly will be stacked atop the Delta vehicle. The Surveyor is slated for liftoff on Nov. 6, 1996 at the beginning of a 20 day launch period. |
| Date |
10/21/1996 |
| NASA Center |
Kennedy Space Center |
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Evidence for Recent Liquid W
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| Title |
Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars |
| Full Description |
Newton Crater is a large basin formed by an asteroid impact that probably occurred more than 3 billion years ago. It is approximately 287 kilometers (178 miles) across. The picture shown here (top) highlights the north wall of a specific, smaller crater located in the southwestern quarter of Newton Crater (above). The crater of interest was also formed by an impact, it is about 7 km (4.4 mi) across, which is about 7 times bigger than the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona in North America. The north wall of the small crater has many narrow gullies eroded into it. These are hypothesized to have been formed by flowing water and debris flows. Debris transported with the water created lobed and finger-like deposits at the base of the crater wall where it intersects the floor (bottom center top image). Many of the finger-like deposits have small channels indicating that a liquid, most likely water, flowed in these areas. Hundreds of individual water and debris flow events might have occurred to create the scene shown here. Each outburst of water from higher up on the crater slopes would have constituted a competition between evaporation, freezing, and gravity. The individual deposits at the ends of channels in this MOC image mosaic were used to get a rough estimate of the minimum amount of water that might be involved in each flow event. This is done first by assuming that the deposits are like debris flows on Earth. In a debris flow, no less than about 10% (and no more than 30%) of their volume is water. Second, the volume of an apron deposit is estimated by measuring the area covered in the MOC image and multiplying it by a conservative estimate of thickness, 2 meters (6.5 feet). For a flow containing only 10% water, these estimates conservatively suggest that about 2.5 million liters (660,000 gallons) of water are involved in each event, this is enough to fill about 7 community-sized swimming pools or enough to supply 20 people with their water needs for a year. The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) high resolution view is located near 41.1S, 159.8W and is a mosaic of three different pictures acquired between January and May 2000. The MOC scene is illuminated from the left, north is up. |
| Date |
06/22/2000 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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Evidence for Recent Liquid W
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| Title |
Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars |
| Full Description |
This image, acquired by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) in May 2000 shows numerous examples of martian gullies that all start--or head--in a specific layer roughly a hundred meters beneath the surface of Mars. These features are located on the south-facing wall of a trough in the Gorgonum Chaos region, an area found to have many examples of gullies proposed to have formed by seepage and runoff of liquid water in recent martian times. The layer from which the gullies emanate has recessed backward to form an overhang beneath a harder layer of rock. The larger gullies have formed an alcove--an area above the overhang from which debris has collapsed to leave a dark-toned scar. Below the layer of seepage is found a dark, narrow channel that runs down the slope to an apron of debris. The small, bright, parallel features at the base of the cliff at the center-right of the picture is a series of large windblown ripples. Although the dark tone of the alcoves and channels in this image is not likely to be the result of wet ground (the contrast in this image has been enhanced), it does suggest that water has seeped out of the ground and moved down the slope quite recently. Sharp contrasts between dark and light areas are hard to maintain on Mars for very long periods of time because dust tends to coat surfaces and reduce brightness differences. To keep dust from settling on a surface, it has to have undergone some process of erosion (wind, landslides, water runoff) relatively recently. There is no way to know how recent this activity was, but educated guesses center between a few to tens of years, and it is entirely possible that the area shown in this image has water seeping out of the ground today. Centered near 37.9S, 170.2W, sunlight illuminates the MOC image from the upper left, north is toward the upper right. The context view above is from the Viking 1 orbiter and was acquired in 1977. The Viking picture is illuminated from the upper right, north is up. The small white box in the context frame shows the location of the high resolution MOC view. |
| Date |
06/22/2000 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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Evidence for Recent Liquid W
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| Title |
Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars |
| Full Description |
Gullies eroded into the wall of a meteor impact crater in Noachis Terra. This high resolution view (top left) from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) shows channels and associated aprons of debris that are interpreted to have formed by groundwater seepage, surface runoff, and debris flow. The lack of small craters superimposed on the channels and apron deposits indicates that these features are geologically young. It is possible that these gullies indicate that liquid water is present within the martian subsurface today. The MOC image was acquired on September 28, 1999. The scene covers an area approximately 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) wide by 6.7 km (4.1 mi) high (note, the aspect ratio is 1.5 to 1.0). Sunlight illuminates this area from the upper left. The image is located near 54.8S, 342.5W. The context image (above) shows the location of the MOC image on the south-facing wall of an impact crater approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. The context picture was obtained by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1980 and is illuminated from the upper left. The large mound on the floor of the crater in the context view is a sand dune field. The Mars Orbiter Camera high resolution images are taken black-and-white (grayscale), the color seen here has been synthesized from the colors of Mars observed by the MOC wide angle cameras and by the Viking Orbiters in the late 1970s. A brief description of how the color was generated: The MOC narrow angle camera only takes grayscale (black and white) pictures. To create the color versions seen here, we have taken much lower resolution red and blue images acquired by the MOC's wide angle cameras, and by the Viking Orbiter cameras in the 1970s, synthesized a green image by averaging red and blue, and created a pallete of colors that represent the range of colors on Mars. We then use a relationship that correlates color and brightness to assign a color to each gray level. This is only a crude approximation of martian color. It is likely Mars would not look like this to a human observer at Mars. |
| Date |
06/22/2000 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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Evidence for Recent Liquid W
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| Title |
Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars: Gullies |
| Full Description |
Gully landforms proposed to have been caused by geologically-recent seepage and runoff of liquid water on Mars are found in the most unlikely places. They typically occur in areas that are quite cold, well below freezing all year round. Like the old adage about moss on trees, nearly all of them form on slopes that face away from sunlight. Most of the gullies occur at latitudes between 30 and 70. The highest latitude at which martian gullies have been found is around 70-75 S on the walls of pits developed in the south polar pitted plains. If you were at this same latitude on Earth, you would be in Antarctica. This region spends much of the winter--which lasts approximately 6 months on Mars--in darkness and at temperatures cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide (around -130C or -200F). Nevertheless, gullies with very sharp, deep, v-shaped channels are seen on the pit walls. Based upon the locations of the tops of the channels on the slope shown here, the inferred site of liquid seepage is located at a layer in the pit wall about 1/3 of the way down from the top of the MOC image. The channels start wide and taper downslope. The area above the channels is layered and has been eroded by mass movement dry avalanching of debris--to form a pattern of chutes and ridges on the upper slope of the pit wall. The top layer appears to have many boulders in it (each about the size of a small house), these boulders are left behind on the upper slopes of the pit wall as debris is removed. |
| Date |
06/22/2000 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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Technician Checks Soil Sampl
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| Title |
Technician Checks Soil Sampler on Viking Lander |
| Full Description |
A technician checks the soil sampler of the Viking lander. An arm will scoop up a sample of the Martian soil, empty it into a hopper on the lander which will route the sample to each of the three scientific instruments, biology, gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer and water analysis. NASA's Viking Lander was designed, fabricated, and tested by the Martin Marietta Corp. of Denver, Colorado, under the direction of the Viking Progect Office at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. The Lander drew heavily on the experience gained from the Ranger, Surveyor and the Apollo Programs in the areas of radar, altimeters, facsimile, cameras, soil samplers, landing gear, etc. |
| Date |
05/20/1971 |
| NASA Center |
Headquarters |
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Viking Pre-Launch Test Fligh
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| Title |
Viking Pre-Launch Test Flight |
| Full Description |
The Titan booster is a two-stage liquid-fueled rocket, with two additional large, solid-propellant rockets attached. It is a member of the Titan family that was used in NASA's Gemini program. The Centaur is a liquid oxygen- liquid hydrogen, high- energy upper stage used on Surveyor flights to the Moon and on Mariner flights to Mars. At liftoff, the solid rockets provide 9.61 million newtons (2.16 million pounds) of thrust. When the solids burn out, the first stage of the Titan booster ignites, and followed by the second-stage ignition as the first stage shuts down. The Centaur ignites on second stage shutdown to inject the spacecraft into orbit. Then after a 30-minute coast around the Earth into position for re-start, the Centaur re-ignites to propel Viking on its Mars trajectory. Once this maneuver is completed the spacecraft separates from the Centaur, which subsequently is deflected away from the flight path to prevent its impact on the surface of Mars. Shortly after separating from the Centaur, the orbiter portion of the combined orbiter-lander spacecraft orients and stabilizes the spacecraft by using the Sun and a very bright star in the southern sky, Canopus, for celestial reference. For more information about Titan and Centaur, please see Chapters 4 and 8, respectively, in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002. |
| Date |
01/20/1974 |
| NASA Center |
Kennedy Space Center |
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Blobs in Space: The Legacy o
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| Title |
Blobs in Space: The Legacy of a Nova |
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Blobs in Space: The Legacy o
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| Title |
Blobs in Space: The Legacy of a Nova |
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Blobs in Space: The Legacy o
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| Title |
Blobs in Space: The Legacy of a Nova |
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Blobs in Space: The Legacy o
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| Title |
Blobs in Space: The Legacy of a Nova |
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Hubble Watches the Red Plane
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| Title |
Hubble Watches the Red Planet as Mars Global Surveyor Begins Aerobraking |
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Hubble Stays on Trail of Fad
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| Title |
Hubble Stays on Trail of Fading Gamma-Ray Burst Fireball, Results Point to Extragalactic Origin |
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Hubble Watches the Red Plane
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| Title |
Hubble Watches the Red Planet as Mars Global Surveyor Begins Aerobraking |
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Hubble Stays on Trail of Fad
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| Title |
Hubble Stays on Trail of Fading Gamma-Ray Burst Fireball, Results Point to Extragalactic Origin |
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Hubble Stays on Trail of Fad
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| Title |
Hubble Stays on Trail of Fading Gamma-Ray Burst Fireball, Results Point to Extragalactic Origin |
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