[meteorite-list] Color View from Orbit Shows Mars Rover Beside Crater

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 10:22:41 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201103091822.p29IMfRB002028_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-072

Color View from Orbit Shows Mars Rover Beside Crater
Jet Propulsion Laboraotry
March 09, 2011

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has nearly completed its
three-month examination of a crater informally named "Santa Maria," but
before the rover resumes its overland trek, an orbiting camera has
provided a color image of Opportunity beside Santa Maria.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired the image on March 1, while
Opportunity was extending its robotic arm to take close-up photos of a
rock called "Ruiz Garcia." From orbit, the tracks Opportunity made as it
approached the crater from the west are clearly visible. Santa Maria
crater is about 90 meters (295 feet) in diameter.

The HiRISE image is at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13803
. March 1 corresponded to the 2,524th Martian day, or sol, of
Opportunity's work on Mars. A raw image from Opportunity's front
hazard-avoidance camera from the same day, showing the arm extended to
Ruiz Garcia, is at
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/f/2524/1F352255948EFFB1F5P1110L0M1.HTML
. To complete the scale of imaging, a raw image taken by Opportunity's
microscopic imager that day, showing textural detail of the rock, is at
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/2524/1M352254519EFFB1F5P2935M2M1.HTML
.

Opportunity completed its three-month prime mission on Mars in April
2004 and has been working in bonus extended missions since then. The
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived at Mars on March 10, 2006,
has also completed its prime mission and is operating in an extended
mission.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the
University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars
Exploration Rover projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington, and built Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, is NASA's industry partner for the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter project and built that spacecraft.

Guy Webster 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2011-072
Received on Wed 09 Mar 2011 01:22:41 PM PST