View allAll Photos Tagged MarsReconnaissanceOrbiter
A view from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on April 8, 2015, catches sight of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover passing through a valley called "Artist's Drive" on the lower slope of Mount Sharp.
The image is from the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. It shows the rover's position after a drive of about 75 feet (23 meters) during the 949th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars.
North is toward the top. The rover's location, with its shadow extending toward the right, is indicated with an inscribed rectangle. The view in this image covers an area about 550 yards (500 meters) across.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter perspective image of craters and a plain on Mars overlaid with CRISM data showing salts and clays.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/Mars Express/Mars Global Surveyor PR image and data showing the relative elevations in Jezero Crater, and ancient and very much dried up lake bed that was originally a crater on Mars. The circle shows the intended landing ellipse for Perseverance in February of 2021.
Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23511
Original caption: Lighter colors represent higher elevation in this image of Jezero Crater on Mars, the landing site for NASA's Mars 2020 mission. The oval indicates the landing ellipse, where the rover will be touching down on Mars. The color added to this image helps the crater rim stand out clearly, and makes it easier to spot the shoreline of a lake that dried up billions of years ago.
Scientists want to visit this shoreline because it may have preserved fossilized microbial life, if any ever formed on Mars.
The image was created using data from a combination of instruments and spacecraft: NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and its Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA); NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) and Context Camera (CTX); and the European Space Agency's Mars Express and its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, led the work to build the CRISM instrument and operates CRISM in coordination with an international team of researchers from universities, government and the private sector. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates CTX. MOLA was built and operated by a team headed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL/ESA
Image Addition Date:
2019-11-12
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of eroding sand dunes and mesas in the Hellespontus Region of Mars.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of Endeavour Crater showing the full, and, unfortunately, final route map of Opportunity, from when she landed to her last location. Processing variant.
Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23178
Original caption: This final traverse map for NASA's Opportunity rover shows where the rover was located within Perseverance Valley on June 10, 2018, the last date it made contact with its engineering team.
Visible in this map is a yellow traverse route beginning at Opportunity's landing site, Eagle Crater, and ranging 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers) to its final resting spot on the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover was descending down into the crater in Perseverance Valley when the dust storm ended its mission.
This map is made from several images taken by the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Those images are: B02_010486_1779_XN_02S005W, P15_006847_1770_XN_03S005W, and P13_006135_1789_XN_01S005W. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates the camera.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Image Addition Date:
2019-04-25
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of fans in Macclesfield. Color/processing variant.
Image source: www.uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_064469_0945
Original caption: Every Martian spring, fans of dust are blown out from under the seasonal layer of carbon dioxide ice that forms a polar cap over the winter.
Gas blowing out from under the ice carries with it a load of dust that is deposited on the surface in a direction determined by the wind at the time of the eruption. Like windsocks, these fans in a polar area we’ve dubbed Macclesfield, record the direction that the wind was blowing.
A citizen science task at Planet Four enlists the public to outline the fans. Their measurements go into a data base that will ultimately help us to understand weather on Mars.
ID: ESP_064469_0945
date: 27 April 2020
altitude: 245 km
NASA/JPL/UArizona
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of northeast Syrtis Major, which is a candidate landing site for the Mars 2020 mission. Color/processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the monitoring of (but no mention of what) Nili Patera. Color variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of sand in a windy location in Ganges Chasma on Mars. Color/processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of olivine on Mars originally detected by ESA's Mars Express, and imaged here by MRO.
Original caption: Another Area of Possibly Olivine-Rich Terrain — Olivine was detected by the OMEGA instrument onboard Mars Express, and our camera can take a much closer look. This is located within an ancient, massive impact crater.
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona (311 km above the surface; less than 1 km top to bottom and north is to the right) www.uahirise.org/PSP_009721_2370
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of sand dunes on a corduroy-like landscape.
Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22464
Original caption: This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows the permanent polar cap of Mars, encircled by sand dunes and looking like pulled threads, these dunes march across a fabric of patterned ground.
At this time of the Martian year the dunes are free of the seasonal dry ice that forms a temporary cover every winter.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Image Addition Date:
2018-05-29
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a dark slope streak on Mars. The dark streak is nothing more than an area of a lack of brighter dust, which will be filled in by the ambient dust in the atmosphere over time. Color/processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the floor of Gale Crater. I looked to see if I could see Curiosity but I couldn't find it - I don't even know if Curiosity is in the image...
This image shows layered sedimentary rocks and ripples that fill and surround Kasimov crater. These layered deposits may have formed through the accumulation of sediment that was transported into this crater by blowing wind.
The crater interior contains a sequence of layers that are remnants of the material that originally infilled the crater. These sediments form an extensive deposit that once covered the floor of the surrounding larger crater.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the monitoring of the slopes of a crater. Color variant.
This observation shows us a set of landforms that appears to form a nested “chevron” pattern on a slope in Coloe Fossae. Interestingly, nearby surfaces on the same slope are all parallel.
Further down the image, we see fretted terrain that’s mostly likely the result of glacial processes. The valley floor offers a stark contrast to the upper slopes and its delicate rippled landforms.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of part of Gusev Crater (which I had to bend in order to get it to fit).
Edited PR image of layers stacked up on the floor of an impact crater on Mars. Cropped by NASA. Processing variant.
Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09578
Original caption: This HiRISE image shows a stack of layers on the floor of an impact crater roughly 30 km across. Many of the layers appear to be extremely thin, and barely resolved.
In broad view, it is clear that the deposit is eroding into a series of ridges, likely due to the wind. Below the ridges, additional dark-toned layered deposits crop out. These exhibit a variety of textures, some of which may be due to transport of material.
The light ridges are often capped by thin dark layers, and similar layers are exposed on the flanks of the ridges. These layers are likely harder than the rest of the material, and so armor the surface against erosion. They are shedding boulders which roll down the slope, as shown in the subimage (figure 1). Although these cap layers are relatively resistant, the boulders do not seem to accumulate at the base of the slope, so it is likely that they also disintegrate relatively quickly.
The subimage shown is 250 meters wide. The light is from the left. Boulders can be seen on the slopes of the ridges along with thin dark layers including the cap layer, but they are absent on the spurs where the resistant cover has been eroded. This demonstrates that the boulders come only from the dark layers, and are not embedded in the rest of the deposit.
Observation Geometry
Image PSP_001503_1645 was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on 21-Nov-2006. The complete image is centered at -15.3 degrees latitude, 89.7 degrees East longitude. The range to the target site was 256.3 km (160.2 miles). At this distance the image scale is 25.6 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~77 cm across are resolved. The image shown here has been map-projected to 25 cm/pixel and north is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 03:35 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 62 degrees, thus the sun was about 28 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 138.7 degrees, the season on Mars is Northern Summer.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona
Image Addition Date:
2007-01-24
Three years after embarking on a historic exploration of the red planet and six miles away from its landing site, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is traversing "Victoria Crater" ridge by ridge, peering at layered cliffs in the interior. To identify various alcoves and cliffs along the way, science team members are using names of places visited by the 16th-century Earth explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew aboard the ship Victoria, who proved the Earth is round. (All names are unofficial unless approved by the International Astronomical Union). This orbital view of "Victoria Crater" was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of ejecta from sublimating carbon dioxide in the Martian south polar area.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of polygonal patterns of frost and cracks in carbon dioxide ice on Mars.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of carbon dioxide erosion (I suspect it's erosion by carbon dioxide, not of carbon dioxide...)
Both ancient and modern deposits within craters in the northern lowlands area of Nilosyrtis are visible in this HiRISE observation. This crater and its neighbors are partially filled with sediments that display unusual morphologies, having patterned interiors and radial filaments. The crater centers are occupied by heavily eroded mounds of material that probably once buried the craters in this region. Horizontal layering is visible in similar mounds elsewhere in this image, and close inspection shows that these mounds are covered by rocks, presumably ejecta from distant impacts. The accumulation of ejecta on their surfaces indicates that the mounds are not recent deposits of dust or sand, but rather are ancient sediments perhaps deposited in a primordial sea. The radial filaments are much more recent deposits, as shown by the lack of ejecta on their surfaces, and are likely made up of dust and sand that is trapped between the older mounds and the crater walls.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a circular structure in a (probably lava) channel on Mars.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a possible meteorite impact site on Mars. Color variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the monitoring of the slopes of Palikir Crater. Color variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a depression or crater on Mars with a very cracked crust near by. Processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of the remains of the Descent Stage and sky crane that lowered Perseverance to the floor of Jezero Crater after it flew off and crash landed in a dune field. Color/processing variant.
Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24335
Original caption: The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was able to capture this image of the final location of the descent stage that helped fly NASA's Perseverance rover down to the surface of Mars. The image was taken on Feb. 19, 2021.
It is a close-up version of a larger image showing several parts of the Mars 2020 mission landing system that got the rover safely on the ground, PIA24333.
These close-ups of Mars 2020 hardware were processed to make them easier to see. The insets showing the descent stage and parachute have had color added and include data from the infrared band of light.
MRO's mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona provided and operates HiRISE.
A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Image Addition Date:
2021-02-22
This image shows detail of a small volcanic complex in the region of Mars called Tharsis. Tharsis, a high volcanic region thousands of kilometers wide, hosts some of the largest known volcanos in the Solar System. The volcanic crater seen here, however, is only about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) across. This means that Tharsis was covered with volcanic activity at a wide range of scales. The wavy ridges of material seen here are solidified lava flows.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Curiosity in Gale Crater. This is an enlarged part of a much larger image (see following images) that shows Curiosity and some of her tracks in the sand. Color/processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a round(ish) depression, looking a bit like a cat's eye, in a field of large boulders on Mars.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a central uplift and sand dunes in a crater in the Hesperia region of Mars.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Curiosity next to Namib Dune in Gale Crater. Color variant.
Details such as the shadow of the mast on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity appear in an image taken Aug. 17, 2012, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, from more directly overhead than previous HiRISE images of Curiosity.
In this product, cutouts showing the rover and other hardware or ground markings from the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft are presented across the top of a larger, quarter-resolution overview keyed to the full-resolution cutouts. North is up. The scale bar is 200 meters (one-eighth of a mile).
Curiosity landed Aug. 5, PDT (Aug. 6, EDT). HiRISE imaged the spacecraft during its descent, on the first day after landing and on the sixth day after landing. This image was acquired looking more directly down (9 degree roll angle) than the prior images so the pixel scale is improved to approximately 11 inches (27 centimeters) per pixel. Each cutout is individually stretched to best show the information without saturation. A special noise cleaning method was applied to the images by Paul Geissler of U.S. Geological Survey.
The shadow of Curiosity's mast extends southeast from the rover, opposite the solar illumination direction.