Mars Photo of the Day - Feb 8 2012

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Today's Image of Mars is the first ever full color HiRISE image taken of the Spirit lander. While the lander has been imaged by HiRISE before, each of those images was in black and white and didn't really show how much the lander stood out against the Martian surface.

You can see the Spirit lander on the west side of Bonnerville Crater  bottom left of the image. You'll notice it is still brighter than the surrounding terrain, but it has acquired a 'Martian hue' because of the dust cover.

Clicking on this image will take you to the high resolution image from HiRISE, where you can better see the Spirit lander. [See the caption from HiRISE]

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Mars Photo of the Day - Jan 13 2012

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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.

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Mars Photo of the Day - Jan 5 2012

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Today's Image of Mars was taken by Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on the 810th sol (Martian day) of its mission (April 13, 2006) and it shows boulders with interesting texture on "Low Ridge." The boulder at the forefront of the image is approximately 40cm (16in) tall and of volcanic origin. Its surface contains many vesicles (rounded holes) in similar fashion to rocks found on the outside of lava flows on Earth.

Clicking on this image will take you to the original captioned image from NASA.

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Mars Photo of the Day - Nov 29 2011

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Today's Image of Mars shows part of El Dorado, located in Gusev Crater, the landing site for Mars Exploration Rover Spirit back in 2004. 

El Dorado is a field of dark, rippled sand that is visible from space as a dark spot on the side of Columbia Hills. The composition of El Dorado results in the low albedo feature seen from orbit. It was determined that El Dorado is a large deposit of dark windblown, "well rounded, well sorted, olivine rich" sand (Lunar Planetary Institure). While the sands of El Dorado are different than those in other parts of Gusev Crater, they are not as different as the image taken from orbit suggested. 

The disparity between the image taken from orbit and the ground image is a result of people interpreting the raw images sent from the orbiter incorrectly. For a full report on this phenomena, please see The Planetary Society's article about Spirit from 2006 where this image is also discussed.

Clicking on this image will take you to the High Resolution Image from NASA. 

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Mars Photo of the Day - Nov 28 2011

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Today's Image of Mars is a compilation of dust devil images from Mars Exploration Rover Spirit as taken in Gusev Crater. These images were taken on Sol 543 of Spirit's mission, which was on July 12 2005. 

Gusev Crater is approximately 166km in diameter and is thought to have formed between three and four billion years ago. The crater was likely home to a lake in the distant Martian past, as Ma'adim Valles drains into it and the ground is rich with sediments that are up to 3000 feet thick. 

Images of dust devil tracks in Gusev Crater were taken from orbit and investigated by Mars Rover Spirit. There is speculation that Spirit lasted so long on Mars because dust devils helped clean its solar panels. 

Clicking this image will take you to the original, slightly larger version of this from NASA.

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Mars Photo of the Day - Oct 1 2011

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Today's Image of Mars is remarkable because that little white dot you see is none other than Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. The photo was taken at the exact right time, and in the exact right position, that the sun was reflecting off of Spirit's solar panels. Apparently this was done completely by accident and was a surprise to the HiRISE team when they discovered it. Spirit was last heard from on March 22 2010; this photo was taken on May 25 2011. 

This image links to the original with the caption provided by HiRISE.

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Mars Photo of the Day - Sept 18 2011

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Today's Mars Photo is of a Martian sunset as taken by Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on May 19 2005. The photo was taken as the sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater.

Clicking on the photo will take you to NASA's page for this image where they give some background on Martian sunsets and the photos taken of them by the Mars rovers. 

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Mars Rover Opportunity Set to Begin Exploring Endeavour Crater

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Two Rovers a Planet Away

When Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on opposite sides of The Red Planet in January of 2004 they had missions that were to last 90 sol (~92.47 days). These missions were extended numerous times as the lifespans of both rovers far exceeded the wildest dreams of the mission coordinators. The two Mars Rovers have traversed and analyzed more Martian terrain than anyone believed they would, observing and discovering remarkable things about the Martian planet, everywhere from observation of astronomical phenomena from Mars to discovering water-altered rocks and even carbonates. It was thus with great sadness that NASA lost contact with and aborted Spirit on May 25, 2011. Even though its twin was lost, there is still Opportunity to analyze Mars and give humanity a better understanding of The Red Planet and its current environment. It is Opportunity's latest venture that we follow today.

An Artist's Rendering of Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity

Endeavour Crater

Opportunity's journey toward Endeavour Crater began in August 2008. It has been a long three years, but now the Mars Rover is just days from reaching its target at the rim of Endeavour Crater, code named Spirit Point in memory of Mars Rover Spirit. 

Panoramic sent back to Earth by Mars Rover Opportunity Aug 6 2011 - Labeled by The Road to Endeavour

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