Mars Photo of the Day - Feb 15 2012

Tweet

Today's Image of Mars is the latest HiRISE image taken in the search for the lost Soviet lander, Mars 6, which was expected to impact the Martian surface at 09:11:05 UT on 12 March 1974. 

Unfortunately contact with Mars 6 was lost just as it should have impacted the surface, however, data transmitted prior to communication failure indicated that the parachute successfully deployed. This gives scientists hope that they can find the lost lander by locating the bright white parachute, which has been the easiest thing to identify most of the past successful landing sites.

That's why this image was taken; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Context Camera (CTX) team saw a small white patch (right middle) and suggested the HiRISE team take a closer look. Upon examination by HiRISE, the team discovered that the white patch was just some relatively bright terrain. And so the search for all the lost Mars Landers will continue!

Clicking on this image will take you to the original high resolution image from HiRISE [See their caption for the image]

See All Mars Photo of the Day Posts!

Mars Photo of the Day - Jan 13 2012

Tweet

Today we're going to take a look at 15 different images of Mars taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera. These images show the parachute and backshell of the six successful Mars Landers: Viking I, Viking 2, Mars Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity, and Phoenix. 

It is easy to spot these landers and their associated hardware because we know exactly where they landed. We still haven't been able to find the failed landers, Mars 2, Mars 3, Mars 6, Beagle 2, and Mars Polar Lander, despite extensive searching. Finding the failed landers is much harder because we don't know where they land and we have to guess according to their last known positions as they approached Mars.

When trying to identify a lander the easiest things to identify are the parachute and the large protective backshell. As you can see from most the of the below images, the parachute is the easiest thing to see. The lander itself is relatively small and hard to see. All but one (Mars 2) of the lost landers are believed to have deployed their parachute so they should theoretically be visible if in an area imaged by HiRISE.

Clicking on this image will take you to the original article from the Planetary Society about finding Mars landers.

See All Mars Photo of the Day Posts!