December 20, 2004

This Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) nighttime IR image is of lava flows from Arsia Mons, the southernmost of the three Tharsis Montes. Lava flow surfaces are generally rough, and trap sand and dust with time. The addition of sand/dust will affect the nighttime IR appearance of the surface [dust cools quickly and is darker than slow cooling rocks in the nighttime IR]. The rough, rockier surface of young flows are brighter than the older dust covered flows.
Nighttime Lava Flows - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 19, 2004

Most craters on the martian northern lowland plains are filled and many of them are buried just beneath the surface, or are mostly buried. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an example, in which only the crater's raised rim still pokes out above the surrounding plains. This crater is located near 46.2°N, 257.7°W. The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left.
Northern Plains Crater - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 18, 2004

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a trough in the Stygis Catena region east of the martian volcano, Elysium Mons. The trough probably formed by collapse. Large, dark boulders can be seen on the trough floor in this volcanic region. The image is located near 24.4°N, 210.4°W. The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left.
Trough Near Stygis Catena - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

Wouldn't it just be simpler to provide people with the JPL link so that they could check in on the rovers as they chose. Bookmarking the site would make things even easier. Or are you just going for the record of redundant posts?

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunity.html or, for spirit,


http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_spirit.html

Yours for succinctness.

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THE MOTHER OF FOOLS IS ALWAYS PREGNANT

I'M TROLLING FOR FOOLS. THIS MUST BE THE PLACE!

December 17, 2004

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dark wind streaks formed by removal of a thin veneer of bright dust covering small craters and lava flow surfaces northwest of Olympus Mons near 28.4°N, 129.8°W. Streak orientations indicate that the responsible winds blew from the east/southeast (right/lower right) toward the west/northwest (left/upper left). The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left.
Wind Streaks Among Flows - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 17, 2004

This Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) VIS image is from the Cydonia region of Mars. It illustrates how difficult it can be to identify modified impact craters in a region of collapse pits/craters. Generally collapse craters/pits have no rims and, due to structual control, form lines. Collapse pits/craters also may coalese into scalloped-edged trenches. In this image, only the small rimmed features are likely to have formed due to impact.
Cydonia Craters - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 17, 2004

This view was assembled from images taken by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit during the rover's 337th martian day, or sol (Dec. 14, 2004). Spirit's position, catalogued as Site 100 for the mission, was on the slope of "Husband Hill." The rover had driven 6 meters (20 feet) on Sol 337 after examining a rock called "Wishstone" for several sols. That rock is just to the left of the top of the arch traced by the rover tracks in this view. Spirit experienced slippage of up to 80 percent on uphill portions of the day's drive. The view is presented here in a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction.
Spirit's Surroundings - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 16, 2004

The large crater in the center of this Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) image is older than all the smaller craters in the rest of the VIS image. The crater no longer has any visible rim or ejecta, and is simply a circular smooth floored basin. The interior has been further modified by both impact and the process that formed the darker markings. This image is from the region near Naktong Vallis.
Old Crater - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 16, 2004

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows light-toned, layered outcrops of sedimentary rock exposed at the top of a small mesa in northern west Candor Chasma of the Valles Marineris trough system. Large, dark, windblown ripples cover the plains surrounding the mesa. The image is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left.
Layered Mesa Top - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

[b]12/16/04 Flight Director's Update: A Lookout Named Larry

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December 15, 2004

The crater in this Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) VIS image, located in Mare Chromium, shows evidence of exterior modification, with little interior modification. While the rim is still visible, the ejecta blanket has been removed or covered. There is some material at the bottom of the crater, but the interior retains the bowl shape from the initial formation of the crater.
Mare Chromium Crater - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 15, 2004

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows gullies running down a slope on the side of a mesa in a pit in the south polar region of Mars. The dark material in this scene is windblown sand. The image is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left.
Gullies and Sand - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 14, 2004

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a leveed channel running down the middle of a lava flow in Daedalia Planum, the southern plains of the Tharsis volcanic region. Transport of fluid lava through a channel such as this helps insulate the molten rock, keeping it hot longer, and thus permits the flow to extend to greater distances than it otherwise might. The scene is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left.
Leveed Channel in Lava Flow - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 14, 2004

The crater in this Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) VIS image is a beautiful example of a central peak crater. Note also the slumped interior crater walls and the well defined lobes of the ejecta blanket. This crater is located in the Isidis basin.
Central Peak - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 14, 2004

NASA Selects Investigations for the Mars Science Laboratory - (PIC)
NASA has selected eight proposals to provide instrumentation and associated science investigations for the mobile Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled for launch in 2009. Proposals selected today were submitted to NASA in response to an announcement of opportunity released in April. The Mars Science Laboratory mission, part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, would deliver a mobile laboratory to the surface of Mars to explore a local region as a potential habitat for past or present life. The laboratory would operate under its own power. It is expected to remain active for one Mars year, equal to two Earth years, after landing. In addition to the instrumentation selected, Mars Science Laboratory would carry a pulsed neutron source and detector for measuring hydrogen (including water), provided by the Russian Federal Space Agency. The project would also include a meteorological package and an ultraviolet sensor provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science...

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me@rescam.org

12/13/04 - Video: Mars Odyssey Scientists Share Their Adventures - RealVideo

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me@rescam.org

December 13, 2004

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured this view of "Burns Cliff" after driving right to the base of this southeastern portion of the inner wall of "Endurance Crater." The view combines frames taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera between the rover's 287th and 294th martian days. This is a composite of 46 different images, each acquired in seven different Pancam filters. It is an approximately true-color rendering generated from the panoramic camera's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 430-nanometer filters. The mosaic spans more than 180 degrees side to side. Because of this wide-angle view, the cliff walls appear to bulge out toward the camera. In reality the walls form a gently curving, continuous surface.
'Burns Cliff' Color Panorama - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 13, 2004

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows fine details among mid-latitude gullies formed on the walls of a large pit within a filled meteor impact crater in the Noachis Terra region of Mars. Like the gullies originally described in June 2000, these may have formed by the seepage of groundwater. Other scientists have speculated that, elsewhere on Mars, similar gullies might form by melting of ice or snow, by liquid or gaseous carbon dioxide, or dry mass movement (landsliding) processes. The many fine tributaries in the Noachis pit crater area shown here lend support to the hypothesis that a liquid with the physical properties of water was involved. The scene is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left.
Noachis Pit Crater Gullies - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 13, 2004

This Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) image is from the Meridiani region of Mars. Several craters at different stages of modification are visible in this image. At the upper right is a crater with its rim forming a thin circular ridge surrounding a filled crater floor. Diagonally down from the first crater is a circular feature which may be a completly filled crater. On the left side is a crater with visible ejecta and a partially filled floor. The rim interior wall is almost completly exposed on this crater.
Meridiani Craters - (PIC)

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me@rescam.org

December 13, 2004

Scientists have identified a water-signature mineral called goethite in bedrock that the NASA's Mars rover Spirit examined in the "Columbia Hills," one of the mission's surest indicators yet for a wet history on Spirit's side of Mars. Researchers used a special imaging technique with the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity to get as detailed a look as possible at a target region near eastern foot of "Burns Cliff." The intervening terrain was too difficult for driving the rover closer. The target is the boundary between two sections of layered rock. The layers in lower section (left) run at a marked angle to the layers in next higher section (right).
Mars Rovers Spot Water-Clue Mineral, Frost, Clouds - (PIC)

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