[meteorite-list] NASA's New Mars Camera Gives Dramatic View of Planet (MRO)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Oct 1 23:50:37 2006
Message-ID: <200610020350.UAA20836_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2006-117

Media contacts:

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

Lori Stiles 520-626-4402
University of Arizona, Tucson

NASA's New Mars Camera Gives Dramatic View of Planet
September 29, 2006

Mars is ready for its close-up. The highest-resolution camera ever to
orbit Mars is returning low-altitude images to Earth from NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Rocks and surface features as small as armchairs are revealed in the
first image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since the spacecraft
maneuvered into its final, low-altitude orbital path. The imaging of the
red planet at this resolution heralds a new era in Mars exploration.

The image of a small fraction of Mars' biggest canyon reached Earth on
Friday, the beginning of a week of tests for the High Resolution Imaging
Science Experiment and other instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter.

"We are elated at the sharpness of the image, revealing such fine detail
in the landscape," said Dr. Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona,
Tucson, who is the principal investigator for this camera. The target
area includes the deepest part of Ius Chasma, one portion of the vast
Valles Marineris canyon. Valles Marineris is the largest known canyon in
the solar system, as long as the distance from California to New York.

The image is available online at
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/mro-20060929a.html and
http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/TRA/TRA_000823_1720/ .

The camera returned test images after Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter went
into orbit around Mars on March 10, 2006, but those were from altitudes
more than eight times as high as the orbiter is flying now. Since March,
the spacecraft has shrunk its orbit by dipping more than 400 times into
the top of the Martian atmosphere to shave velocity. It is now flying in
its final, nearly circular orbit at altitudes of 250 to 316 kilometers
(155 to 196 miles). The orbit will remain this shape and size for the
mission's two-year primary science phase, which begins in November.

During its primary science phase, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will
return more data about the red planet than all previous missions
combined, pouring data to Earth at about 10 times the rate of any
earlier Mars spacecraft. Scientists will analyze the information to gain
a better understanding of the distribution and history of Mars' water --
whether ice, vapor or liquid -- and of the processes that formed and
modified the planet's surface.

In addition to the high-resolution camera, the orbiter's science payload
includes a mineral-identifying spectrometer, a ground-penetrating radar,
a context camera for imaging wide swaths of the surface, a wide-angle
color imager for monitoring the entire planet daily, and an instrument
for mapping and monitoring water vapor and other constituents in the
atmosphere.

For most of October, Mars will be passing nearly behind the sun from
Earth's perspective. Communication will be intermittent. Activities will
be minimal for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and other spacecraft at Mars
during this time, and they will resume in early November.

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at
http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor and built the
spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated
by the University of Arizona and the instrument was built by Ball
Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo.
Received on Sun 01 Oct 2006 11:50:34 PM PDT


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