tecoyah

After manipulating the software in the cameras , NASA actually took pics of the rovers from orbit.

http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/.../story006.html

Wheel tracks left by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, and even the rover itself, are visible in this image from the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL - click to enlarge.
Jet Propulsion Lab -- NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, starting its third mission extension this week after seven years of orbiting Mars, is using an innovative technique to capture pictures even sharper than most of the more than 170,000 it has already produced.

One dramatic example from the spacecraft's Mars Orbiter Camera shows wheel tracks of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and the rover itself.

Another tells scientists that no boulders bigger than about 1 to 2 meters (3 to 7 feet) are exposed in giant ripples created by a catastrophic flood.

Those examples are available online at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs.

In addition, about 24,000 newly catalogued images that Mars Global Surveyor took between October 2003 and March 2004 have been added to the Mars Orbiter Camera Image Gallery at http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/.

These include additional pictures of the Mars Exploration Rover sites seen from orbit.



"Over the past year and a half, the camera and spacecraft teams for Mars Global Surveyor have worked together to develop a technique that allows us to roll the entire spacecraft so that the camera can be scanned in a way that sees details at three times higher resolution than we normally get," said Dr. Ken Edgett, staff scientist for Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., which built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera.

The technique adjusts the rotation rate of the spacecraft to match the ground speed under the camera.

"The image motion compensation is tricky and the spacecraft does not always hit its target. However, when it does, the results can be spectacular," Edgett said.

The Mars Orbiter Camera acquires the highest resolution images ever obtained from a Mars-orbiting spacecraft. During normal operating conditions, the smallest objects that can be resolved on the martian surface in these images are about 4 to 5 meters (13 to 16 feet) across.

With the adjusted-rotation technique, called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," objects as small as 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) can be seen in images from the same camera.

Resolution capability of 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) per pixel is improved to one-half meter (1.6 feet) per pixel. Because the maneuvers are complex and the amount of data that can be acquired is limited, most images from the camera are still taken without using that technique.

Researchers' goal in taking this image was to look for boulders in the large ripples formed by an ancient catastrophic flood in Mars' Athabasca Vallis. Credit: NASA/JPL - click to enlarge
Artist's rendition of the Mars Global Surveyor. Credit: NASA/JPL - click to enlarge


Mars Global Surveyor began orbiting Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. After gradually adjusting the shape of its orbit, it began systematically mapping the planet in March 1999.

The Mars Orbiter Camera's narrow-angle camera has now examined nearly 4.5 percent of Mars' surface, including extensive imaging of candidate and selected landing sites for surface missions. The Mars Orbiter Camera also includes a wide-angle camera that observes the entire planet daily.

"Mars Global Surveyor has been productive longer than any other spacecraft ever sent to Mars, since it surpassed Viking Lander 1's longevity earlier this year and has returned more images than all past Mars missions combined," said Tom Thorpe, project manager for Mars Global Surveyor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The mission will complete its 25,000th mapping orbit on Oct. 11.

Principal goals for the orbiter's latest mission extension, beginning Oct. 1, include continued weather monitoring to form a continuous set of observations with NASA's next Mars mission, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled to reach the red planet in 2006; imaging of possible landing sites for the Phoenix 2007 Mars Scout lander and 2009 Mars Science Laboratory rover; continued mapping and analysis of key sedimentary-rock outcrop sites; and continued monitoring of changes on the surface due to wind and ice.

Because the narrow-angle camera has imaged only a small fraction of the surface, new discoveries about surface features are likely to come at any time. The extension runs two years, through September 2006, with a budget of $7.5 million per year.

Dr. James Garvin, NASA's chief scientist for Mars and the Moon, said, "Mars Global Surveyor continues to catalyze new science as it explores Mars at scales compatible with those that our Mars Exploration Rovers negotiate every day, and its extended mission will continue to set the stage for upcoming observations by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter."

Additional information about Mars Global Surveyor is available online at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/.

In addition to semi-annual releases of large collections of archived pictures, the Mars Orbiter Camera team posts a new image daily and last year began soliciting public suggestions for camera targets on Mars.

These materials can be viewed online at http://www.msss.com.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Global Surveyor mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, which built and operates the spacecraft.

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samiam

Fascinating. Thank you for posting.

Y2KDREAD

Ah technolodgy, you gotta love it!

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scoobe

Excellent article. Thanks for posting it.

timbuk2

Fantastic!

I follow the rovers as best I can... but there are just so many pics, so much information to look into. It would be really nice if NOVA does a 2-3 hour program about this mission... kick back on the couch and absorb it the lazy way for a while.

-tb2

macmanmike6100

That's amazing; thanks for sharing. NASA may be inefficient (look at the size of their budget) but they certainly do some amazing things.

CoachAlan

Yeah, but 30 years from now there will be people who claim we never landed on Mars, and that these photos were actually taken on a soundstage in Los Angeles.

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JumpinJesus

We can send a rover to Mars, take amazing photos from an orbiter showing detail on the red planet few have ever seen, yet I still can't get a decent signal on my cell phone. Go figure.

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roachboy

great set of resources...thanks.

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JStrider

a while back at the astronomy picture of the day website they had a picture of the tracks in the crater from one of the rovers...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040922.html

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timbuk2

Macmannmike:

I really must disagree with you about NASA being "inefficient"... and particularly with the "the size of their budget" - meaning it's too big I assume?

It never ceases to amaze me at the incredible accomplishments of NASA... *ESPECIALLY* because it's a government agency. But the fact is NASA funding is less than 1% of the total budget of the US.

I think. Perhaps I should refresh my research, but if I come up with 2%, shall we still carry on this discussion?
-tb2

Blackthorn

That's fantastic!!! Maybe NASA can position one of those buggers over TORA-BORA and perhaps locate a 6'5" skinny, long bearded fucker wearing white and toting a dialysis machine!!!

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Fate

I have to get me one of those, "wonder what my friend in Western Canada is doing..."
How long till we spring a colony on the moon?

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tecoyah

Not too long to wait for that colony.....check this out

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=70620

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cstops

ah, but dude, how much did you pay for your phone

zekezero

and more importantly did you get the optional roll over plan?