[meteorite-list] Mars Orbiter Sees Rover Tracks Among Thousands of New Images

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Sep 27 16:03:14 2004
Message-ID: <200409271919.MAA16816_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:
2004-238
September 27, 2004

Mars Orbiter Sees Rover Tracks Among Thousands of New Images

NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, starting its third mission extension this
week after seven years of orbiting Mars, is using an innovative
technique to capture pictures even sharper than most of the more than
170,000 it has already produced.

One dramatic example from the spacecraft's Mars Orbiter Camera shows
wheel tracks of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and the rover
itself. Another tells scientists that no boulders bigger than
about 1 to 2 meters (3 to 7 feet) are exposed in giant ripples created
by a catastrophic flood.

Those examples are available online at

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/09/27/ and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs .

In addition, about 24,000 newly
catalogued images that Mars Global Surveyor took between October 2003
and March 2004 have been added to the Mars Orbiter Camera Image
Gallery at ttp://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/ . These include additional
pictures of the Mars Exploration Rover sites seen from orbit.

"Over the past year and a half, the camera and spacecraft teams for
Mars Global Surveyor have worked together to develop a technique that
allows us to roll the entire spacecraft so that the camera can be
scanned in a way that sees details at three times higher resolution
than we normally get," said Dr. Ken Edgett, staff scientist for Malin
Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., which built and operates the
Mars Orbiter Camera. The technique adjusts the rotation rate of the
spacecraft to match the ground speed under the camera.

"The image motion compensation is tricky and the spacecraft does not
always hit its target. However, when it does, the results can be
spectacular," Edgett said.

The Mars Orbiter Camera acquires the highest resolution images ever
obtained from a Mars-orbiting spacecraft. During normal operating
conditions, the smallest objects that can be resolved on the martian
surface in these images are about 4 to 5 meters (13 to 16 feet)
across. With the adjusted-rotation technique, called
"compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," objects as small as
1.5 meters (4.9 feet) can be seen in images from the same camera.
Resolution capability of 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) per pixel is improved
to one-half meter (1.6 feet) per pixel. Because the maneuvers are
complex and the amount of data that can be acquired is limited, most
images from the camera are still taken without using that technique.

Mars Global Surveyor began orbiting Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. After
gradually adjusting the shape of its orbit, it began systematically
mapping the planet in March 1999. The Mars Orbiter Camera's
narrow-angle camera has now examined nearly 4.5 percent of Mars'
surface, including extensive imaging of candidate and selected landing
sites for surface missions. The Mars Orbiter Camera also includes a
wide-angle camera that observes the entire planet daily.

"Mars Global Surveyor has been productive longer than any other
spacecraft ever sent to Mars, since it surpassed Viking Lander 1's
longevity earlier this year and has returned more images than all past
Mars missions combined," said Tom Thorpe, project manager for Mars
Global Surveyor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
The mission will complete its 25,000th mapping orbit on Oct. 11.

Principal goals for the orbiter's latest mission extension, beginning
Oct. 1, include continued weather monitoring to form a continuous set
of observations with NASA's next Mars mission, Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter, scheduled to reach the red planet in 2006; imaging of
possible landing sites for the Phoenix 2007 Mars Scout lander and 2009
Mars Science Laboratory rover; continued mapping and analysis of key
sedimentary-rock outcrop sites; and continued monitoring of changes on
the surface due to wind and ice. Because the narrow-angle camera has
imaged only a small fraction of the surface, new discoveries about
surface features are likely to come at any time. The extension runs
two years, through September 2006, with a budget of $7.5 million per
year.

Dr. James Garvin, NASA's chief scientist for Mars and the Moon, said,
"Mars Global Surveyor continues to catalyze new science as it explores
Mars at scales compatible with those that our Mars Exploration Rovers
negotiate every day, and its extended mission will continue to set the
stage for upcoming observations by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter."

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 last year began soliciting
public suggestions for camera targets on Mars. These materials can be
viewed online at http://www.msss.com . For more information about
NASA and other space science programs on the Internet, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/ .

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

- end -
Received on Mon 27 Sep 2004 03:19:22 PM PDT