And This is what They Wanted To See on Mars

If you ask people what they want to see on Mars and let ’em vote on their favorite places to image, you get some gorgeous places on one of the most fascinating worlds of the solar system.  The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRiSE camera snapped a collection of images and released the first eight today that were suggested by the public through a program called HiWish. What impresses me is how savvy folks can be about the Red Planet.  It’s tough to pick out MY favorite of the first eight, but this one of ice layers at the Martian North Pole is both intriguing AND easy on the eyes! You can see the other seven at the link above.

The cool thing about the HiWISH program is that it’s an ongoing project, so if you haven’t suggested a place for the HiRiSE camera to point its viewfinder, skedaddle on over to the HiWish site and make your Martian wishes known!

P.S. Many thanks to the folks who sent good wishes the past week or two.  I returned from an astronomy lecture trip with a broken arm (who knew lecturing could be so dangerous?) and until a few days ago, typing was very difficult. I’m still a bit sore, but some physical therapy and exercise will bring it back in shape soon!

Picture Suggestions Welcome

Do you have a place you’d like to see “up close and personal” on Mars? If so, the folks running the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter want to hear from you. This is a very cool project for what has often been called the “people’s camera” on the long-running Mars mission. The idea is to engage people more closely with Mars exploration — and what better way than to challenge the public come up with ideas for places to explore with this wonderful camera?

The HiRISE team created an online tool called HiWISH that lets you examine Mars maps to see where images have been taken, where imaging will take place in the future. You use that to find areas where you want to explore that haven’t been covered — then you write up image suggestion.  You will be asked to give the observation a title, put it into a science theme like volcanism, seasonal change, or impacts, and explain why it’s important scientifically to observe the region of interest.

I’m sure that the team will get many thousands of suggestions for images of specific Mars sites. Their job will be to prioritize the images and evaluate them for good science.  The more scientifically relevant your suggestion is, the better chance your “imaging program” will get sent to the spacecraft.  Eventually, thousands of targets from scientists and the public will be imaged when the orbital track and other conditions are right.

If you want to explore Mars via image suggestions in this very cool program, head on over to the mission suggestion page.

Let’s get out there and do some good Mars science, everybody!