[meteorite-list] New Photos From NASA Orbiter's HiRISE Camera Detail Diverse Martian Terrain

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Oct 2 20:34:40 2006
Message-ID: <200610030034.RAA06748_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

NEW PHOTOS FROM NASA ORBITER'S HiRISE CAMERA DETAIL DIVERSE MARTIAN TERRAIN
(From Lori Stiles, University Communications, 520-626-4402)

- Monday, October 02, 2006

-------------------------------------------------------
Contact Information
 Alfred S. McEwen 520-621-4573 mcewen_at_lpl.arizona.edu
 Chris Okubo 520-626-1458 chriso_at_lpl.arizona.edu

HiRISE images Web site
http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/TRA
-------------------------------------------------------

New images from the highest-resolution camera ever to orbit Mars show
striking new details in diverse terrains that surface the planet.

New images from the High Resolution Science Imaging Experiment (HiRISE)
camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached Earth on Friday, Sept.
29, and Saturday, Sept. 30.

HiRISE principal investigator Alfred S. McEwen of the University of Arizona
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) and his team released the first HiRISE
image of Mars from mapping orbit, an image of Ius Chasma in the vast Valles
Marineris canyon, on Friday afternoon. Team members viewed more new images
at LPL's HiRISE Operations Center (HiROC) on the UA campus over the weekend.

Several of these images are available online at
http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/TRA. The images show never-before-seen
structure at such places as:

  o polygon-patterned polar terrain in the northern plains. The image
shows a location near an area under consideration as a landing site for the
Phoenix Scout Mission to Mars in 2008. (LPL scientist Peter Smith is
principal investigator for Phoenix.)
  o wind-sculpted landforms called 'yardangs' in the Medusae Fossae
Formation at the Martian mid-latitudes
  o a cliff snaking through the southern edge of Elysium Planitia
near Mars' equator
  o dramatic pits, buttes and mesas that have eroded from
lighter-toned material flanking the very smooth dark plains in Meridiana
Planum. (The Mars Exploration Rover 'Opportunity' is about 600 kilometers
west of where this image was taken.)
  o patterns of parallel dunes and ripples, as well as boulders as
small as two meters across, in part of the floor of an ancient Martian
outflow channel called Niger Vallis
  o a 300-meter-wide, 90-meter-deep trough filled with dunes and
peppered with boulders that have fallen from the rocky walls to the floor of
the trough, which is in the Cerberus Fossae rift system

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 higher than 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.

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. Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo., built the
HiRISE instrument.
Received on Mon 02 Oct 2006 08:34:36 PM PDT