Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter begins returning images

MRO's Website

Here's a timeline of the past month above the surface of Mars

Sept. 12th- MRO, after months of Aerobraking (dipping in and out of the atmosphere of Mars to slow down it's orbit - saves on fuel costs), the orbiter reached a final orbit that ranges from 250 KM near the south pole, to about 316 KM near the north pole

Sept 19th- The ground piercing radar, which will be used to plumb depths of about a kilometer below the surface for signs of ice water, rock, and the possibility of liquid water. A simple radio echo test confirmed that the instrument works, though it has not been used to it's full ability as of yet.

Sept 29th- MRO captured and sent home the above image, which a section of the Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system (On Earth, it would stretch from New York to California)


This isn't the first time the Hi-RISE camera was used; See Here, but the previous test images were taken high above the final orbit of the MRO. The resolution on this picture is much higher.

From the thread I just posted, you can read that the resolution of the March photos was ~8.7 feet per pixel.

With the spacecraft at an altitude of 280 kilometers (174 miles), the image scale is 29.7 centimeters per pixel (about 12 inches per pixel).
....
The image resolves rocks as small as small as 90 centimeters (3 feet) in diameter

NASA

[Ed] Through the month of October, communication with the orbiters and robots on Mars will be iffy, due to the planet being on the other side of the sun. When communications are again stable in the month of November, the main science mission will begin in earnest.


So, yeah. In as many words, this is really, really cool.
You can find the full res TIF image Here (Warning; 8.5 MB)

to the boys (and girls) over at NASA and JPL.

[Ed] The best way I've found to view the TIF is to right click the link I gave, choose "save link as", and then view the image with photoshop or other image viewer. Does anybody else have a better way?



[edit on 2-10-2006 by TheGoodDoctorFunk]

There is another thread about MRO
www.abovetopsecret.com...
(though, it's about the first color picture returned)
Good job they did. Hope that this will put an end to all "anomalies"...but...I'm sure this will fuel them
About the tiffs...I deal with them in the same way.

Yeah, thought I adressed that already, I remember reading it a while ago. Figured that since this was close up, higher resolution, and no longer just a test image, it warrented a new thread. That, and I didn't bother to read through the past thread when I found it again, where I would have seen the new posts.

Ed] In any case, here is the new MRO TIF image, which I have rehosted and converted to JPG. Big fan of the rocks in the upper right.

[edit on 2-10-2006 by TheGoodDoctorFunk]

For the TIFFs, try using DjVu.

You can download it from here.

Or this one.

[edit on 2/10/2006 by ArMaP]

There are quite a few more images here:

More MRO

Just released today, Oct 2.

Some of the links are funky..so click around a little.
You can also go to the "zoomify" image index, on the upper right hand of the page, you can get to most of the bigger ones there too..

enjoy!

Originally posted by TheGoodDoctorFunk

With the spacecraft at an altitude of 280 kilometers (174 miles), the image scale is 29.7 centimeters per pixel (about 12 inches per pixel).
....
The image resolves rocks as small as small as 90 centimeters (3 feet) in diameter

I just realised that! 30 centimeters per pixel!!!
So this means we will have a picture around 7 pixels by 5 pixels of spirit and opportunity mars rovers. How cool is that

Rover dimensions: 1.5 meter (4.9 feet) high by 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) wide by 1.6 meter (5.2 feet) long
marsrovers.nasa.gov... #search=%22nasa%20mars%20rovers%20dimension%22

Wow, nice catch on that HiRISE website, spacedoubt



Can't wait to meet the rovers

It has taken a nice picture of one of the rovers


news.bbc.co.uk...

Thats a fantastic picture of where the rover is currently at, lets hope we get some special images with better resolutions that we can take a good look at.

That is so cool!

You can even see the rover tracks..


Again, if you want to see more stuff, including the whole swath of the Rover at Victoria crater..Go to this page..
hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu...

There are another 12 images there too..

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Again, if you want to see more stuff, including the whole swath of the Rover at Victoria crater..Go to this page..
hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu...

There are another 12 images there too..

Yes, I have downloaded all high-resolution images and now I have 1 Gigabyte less of free disk space, but those photos are amazing.

One is so large that I cannot even open it in any program I currently have installed.

This is what I was talking about!!! Around 7 by 5 pixels....

You know, I was thinking that since we can actually see the rover tracks.
Wouldn't it be a kick, if they wrote something in the dust with the rover.
Visible from Space.
It would eventually be covred over but:

Hi MOM!

Or better yet, ADVERTISE!
Then take a Hi resolution photo.

Get a little funding money for the next mission.

Or a messege for alines...like the face....

The should be able to find Mars Polar lander and Beagle 2 crash sites easy with MRO now. Hope they do it soon.

Anone have any favorites so far?

I really like this one.
hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu...

The sun angle is perfect, bings out the dunes, and you can see them almost marching down the slope into what looks like a washout.

[edit on 8-10-2006 by spacedoubt]