[meteorite-list] Gallery of Mars Closeups From NASA Orbiter Adds 10,232 Views

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:30:29 2004
Message-ID: <200309301921.MAA15835_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster (818) 354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Donald Savage (202) 358-1547
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

IMAGE ADVISORY: 2003-131
September 30, 2003

Gallery of Mars Closeups From NASA Orbiter Adds 10,232 Views

Thousands of newly released portraits of martian landscapes from
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft testify to the diversity of
ways geological processes have sculpted the surface of our neighboring
planet.

Swirling textures that some scientists call "taffy-pull terrain" fill
one new image from the plains of southern Mars, for example. Other
images reveal details of features such as wind-whipped polar dunes and
steep-sided valleys carved by flowing water or lava.

The 10,232 newly released pictures from the Mars Orbiter Camera on
Mars Global Surveyor bring the total number of images in the camera's
online gallery to more than 134,000. The new batch is at:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/09/30/ .

"Mars just keeps astounding us with its complexity," said Dr. Ken
Edgett, staff scientist for Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego,
Calif, which built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera.

The new group of images was taken between August 2002 and February
2003, then validated and archived by the camera team. It includes
many views of north polar terrain, extremely clear-atmosphere views of
a deep southern basin named Hellas Planitia, and a variety of martian
landforms between the north pole and the southern middle latitudes.
The pictures show martian surface details down to the size of a large
sport utility vehicle.

Since Mars Global Surveyor began orbiting Mars six years ago, the
mission has provided a wealth of information about the planet's
atmosphere and interior, as well at its surface.

Evaluation of landing sites for NASA's Spirit and Opportunity, two
Mars Exploration Rover spacecraft due to land on Mars in January 2004,
relied heavily on mineral mapping, detailed imagery and topographic
measurements by Global Surveyor.

Additional information about Mars Global Surveyor is available online
at:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/ .

In addition to semi-annual releases of large collections of archived
pictures, the Mars Orbiter Camera team posts a new image daily and
recently began soliciting public suggestions for camera targets on
Mars. The full gallery is available at:

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/ .

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars
Global Surveyor mission for NASA's Office of Space Science,
Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin
Space Systems, Denver, which built and operates the spacecraft.

For more information about NASA and other space science programs on
the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov .

--end--
Received on Tue 30 Sep 2003 03:21:25 PM PDT