Lookin' Good, Mars! ExoMars' First High-Res Photos Are Incredible

[Baclava]

Source: Space.com

Behold! The European Space Agency's new Mars orbiter just sent back its first high-resolution images of the Red Planet, and the view is amazing.

These first images allowed ESA to test the camera's color- and stereo-imaging capabilities, which would allow CaSSIS to build 3D maps of the Martian surface using measurements with sound waves.

Though the color-imaging equipment was functioning as planned, the first photos appear black and white. That's because the areas photographed are dusty ― volcanic without much color to be seen. "We will have to wait a little until something colorful passes under the spacecraft," Thomas said.

TGO will spend nine to 12 months "aerobraking," or slowing down to round out its elliptical orbit. Eventually, the orbiter will circle the planet at a constant altitude of about 250 miles (400 km). Its primary science mission is scheduled to begin by the end of 2017. Then TGO will begin studying gases in the Martian atmosphere.



Read more: http://www.space.com/34843-exomars-cassis-first-mars-photos.html

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First images from ExoMars mission

almost like being there, almost

[livetohike]

1. Awesome! Thanks for sharing this!

[justhanginon]

2. Thanks for posting. Tremendous pictures, almost unbelievably sharp.

[Baclava]

3. We need to send a drone down and fly into those lava tubes!

meanwhile, Curiosity keeps on chugging

http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/mars-rover-curiosity-mission-updates/

[christx30]

13. A drone sounds nice,

but I don't think it would work due to the time delay on communications between Earth and Mars. It takes between 13 and 24 minutes for a signal go between the two planets. Too big of a gap to run any kind of aircraft.
Even with a rover, this kind of delay can cause trouble.
Try this: Look at your living room and plan a trip to the kitchen. Close your eyes, and walk a few steps. Then open your eyes, look at where you are and the path you need to take, and adjust for any new obstacles in your path, then close your eyes and walk. That's pretty much how the Curiosity team describes moving around the Martian surface. It's slow paced and dangerous.
But I'd love to see what kind of video it'd come up with. If it could survive the dust storms.

[Baclava]

15. OK - maybe a crawler can just jump in and crawl around some with a camera feed to an orbiter

yeah - I want to see what's down there

[christx30]

16. I like that idea. I'd love to see what's down there.

Are you watching Mars on National Geographic? It's at once a documentary that takes place in 2016 with information about Mars with scientists and Elon Musk talking about it, and a scripted drama in 2033, following the first team that lands on Mars, and everything that they go through. It's gorgeously shot. I'd recommend it to anyone.

[Baclava]

17. heh, yeah, I'm watching Mars...glad they went for the tubes and inflatable shelter!

good plan! away from the radiation on the surface

they can't be much different from the lava tubes on earth

[olddad56]

4. possibly what our planet will look like within the next 4 years.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Thank you. They are amazing.

[Baclava]

10. I'm still looking through the New Horizon's Pluto pics

[Baclava]

12. I like the robot pics from the surface too, they don't get enough love

[mountain grammy]

6. Just wow

And thanks for posting

[Liberalagogo]

7. Looks like a closeup

of a bed spread at the:

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Uh, measurements with **SOUND WAVES** ??

How is a probe orbiting in the vaccuum of space going to transmit or receive sound waves ??

[petronius]

9. Well, they said it was "stereo" - what else could it be but sound?

[Baclava]

11. hell if I know what they're saying there...stereo images is what it does

CASSIS - COLOUR AND STEREO SURFACE IMAGING SYSTEM

http://exploration.esa.int/mars/48523-trace-gas-orbiter-instruments/?fbodylongid=2210

[christx30]

14. They're also aerobraking, which means they are in the atmosphere, somewhat.

But the atmosphere is very thin, so it doesn't slow the craft down. Maybe it's just thick enough for sound waves.

[Thor_MN]

18. Probably a dumbass reporter that knows only one definition of Stereo

and lack of an editor of any sort.

[kebob]

19. Damn, those Martian Sperm are HUGE!

[Baclava]

20. Swimmers need water, Mars has water!

Mars Ice Deposit Holds as Much Water as Lake Superior

Frozen beneath a region of cracked and pitted plains on Mars lies about as much water as what's in Lake Superior, largest of the Great Lakes, researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have determined.

Scientists examined part of Mars' Utopia Planitia region, in the mid-northern latitudes, with the orbiter's ground-penetrating Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument. Analyses of data from more than 600 overhead passes with the onboard radar instrument reveal a deposit more extensive in area than the state of New Mexico. The deposit ranges in thickness from about 260 feet (80 meters) to about 560 feet (170 meters), with a composition that's 50 to 85 percent water ice, mixed with dust or larger rocky particles.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6680