Hebes Chasma perspective view from Mars Express. (Click to embiggen -- warning: BIG image)
The hits just keep comin’ from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express and its High Resolution Stereo Camera. I know this isn’t a new image, but it’s new to me, so I thought I’d share it here.
This is a perspective view of Hebes Chasma taken on September 16, 2005. The detail is amazing, and the resolution is about 15 meters per pixel (about 45 feet per pixel).
Click on the image here and you’ll get a larger version — take some time to explore this 8,000-meter deep canyon carved across the surface of Mars. You’ll find great details in the intricately sculpted canyon walls, some craters, and other formations called Light-Toned Deposits that indicate that water once flowed across this region of the Red Planet.
When I first saw this image it reminded me of flying over the desert southwest of the United States. I imagine some future explorers will take a guided tour over Hebes Chasma someday and see this scene “up close and personal” just prior to their landing and ultimate exploration mission.
Thanks to Mark for pointing my attention to the most recent images from Mars Express.
NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander (artist's conception) before the onset of winter.
It has been some days since I last got a “tweet” from the Mars Phoenix lander via Twitter. The mission’s Earth-based crew has been waiting word from the lander, too, but in recent days they’ve heard nothing.
Today, Barry “Superman” Goldstein, the Phoenix project manager, Peter “Mr. Mars Science” Smith (principal investigator), and Doug McCuistion (director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters) confirmed the news we’ve all been dreading to hear: that the lander, which has been running like a champ for the past six months, is now officially “offline” (but possibly not dead, Jim).
It would appear that winter conditions–deepening sub-zero temperatures and declining amounts of sunlight (due to shorter days and higher amounts of dust in the air due to a recent dust storm) for the solar panels–have taken their toll on the mission, causing the lander to go to sleep due to lack of sunlight to power its solar panels any further. The vehicle has achieved all its science goals and then some, according to Goldstein. “We’re pretty convinced that the vehicle is no longer available for us to use,” he said, “but we’re going to continue listening with Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Odyssey mission. We’ll turn on the radio and try to hail Phoenix and see if it’s alive.”
This is not at all unexpected, although mission scientists had hoped the communications would continue a while longer and that Phoenix would beat the weather odds a while longer. Still, Phoenix functioned really well for six months, significantly beyond its original three-month “warranty period.” For our money, we got a great look at the Mars northern polar region.
Detecting wind speeds and directions on Mars.
Principal investigator Smith pointed out that the mission has discovered amazing things. “The mission is all about water,” he said. “What we’ve got from it will keep us busy figuring out what we’ve got.”
The lander spent six months sending back data about the Mars polar region. Throughout its mission, it has supplied more than 25,000 images of the cracked terrain around the pole and dug into the icy dirt to give us a look at the mineralogy of the soil, just like any good geologist on Earth would do in a study site. In October, it sent back a series of images showing it’s “telltale” instrument blowing in the Martian breezes. Lately, it was showing snowfall as winter approaches, and we even got to see its view of the stars from Mars.
So, while this very successful mission has come to an end, NASA’s Doug McCuistion said that this isn’t so much a mournful occasion as an Irish wake, where everyone should be celebrating the achievements of the mission and looking forward to the next Mars missions. And, he’s right. Phoenix has been an amazingly cool learning experience for the University of Arizona students and scientists who developed and ran the mission. It let them “touch” water on Mars for the first time, handle the alkaline Martian soil, study its ice, and do more measurements of the atmosphere. The next mission, called MAVEN and based at the University of Colorado, will take up the Mars exploration mantle from Phoenix, joining the Mars Exploration Rovers on the Red Planet.
In the spirit of Irish wakes everywhere, I toast the Mars Phoenix Lander and its scientists. Here’s to you all! Good job!
