[meteorite-list] Mars Global Surveyor - 10 Years in Space

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Nov 7 11:48:38 2006
Message-ID: <200611071648.IAA04804_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR
Image of the Week
November 7, 2006

The following new image taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on
the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft is now available:

o MGS Mars Orbiter Camera: 10 Years In Space (Released 07 November 2006)
  http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/11/07

Image Caption:

Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was launched 10 years ago today, on 7
November 1996. The spacecraft reached Mars on 12 September 1997, and has
been observing the ever-changing red planet over the course of the past
5 martian years.

The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) has spent 10 years in the near vaccuum of
space - not bad, considering that the Primary Mission, at the time of
launch, was expected to end in early 2000. Since September 1997, MOC has
been acquiring new images that highlight the geology and meteorlogy of
Mars; more than 240,000 images have been returned to Earth. A recent
example, from 15 October 2006, is shown here.

Two annular (i.e., somewhat circular) clouds are seen in the upper left
corner of this mosaic of MOC wide angle camera daily global mapping
images. To the right of the picture's center is the martian north polar
cap. The image has a scale of about 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) per
pixel. Annular clouds are common in mid-northern summer in the north
polar region, and may result from eddy currents in the lower atmosphere.
The appearance of such clouds happens every year; this year they came
like clockwork within a two-week forecasted period, based on the
previous 4 martian years of experience gained from MGS MOC daily global
imaging.

Despite their superficial resemblance to Earth-orbiting satellite views
of hurricanes, these cloud features are not the result of strong winds,
and they typically dissipate later in the day. The pictures used to make
this mosaic were acquired less than 2 days before the MOC was turned off
for MGS's fifth Mars-Earth Solar Conjunction period. During Conjunction,
Mars was on the other side of the Sun, relative to Earth, and thus MGS
could not transmit data (through the Sun) during the second half of
October.

To review the launch 10 years ago, one can visit the NASA Kennedy Space
Center web site, which includes pictures and video at:
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/payload/missions/mgs/video.html. Video clips
of the launch and many animations and videos from the earlier phases of
the MGS mission can be reviewed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory web
site at: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/movpics/anim/anim.html.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived here:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/index.html

Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been
in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary
mapping mission on March 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the
first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as
the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office
of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS)
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.
Received on Tue 07 Nov 2006 11:48:31 AM PST