HiRISE

A new pockmark on the face of Mars

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Photo: New crater on Mars. Image Credit: NASA
A dramatic, fresh impact crater dominates this false-color image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Nov. 19, 2013.

NASA-JPL: Space rocks hitting Mars excavate fresh craters at a pace of more than 200 per year, but few new Mars scars pack as much visual punch as one seen in a NASA image released February 5, 2014.

The image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a crater about 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter at the center of a radial burst painting the surface with a pattern of bright and dark tones. (See a high-resolution version of the image here.)

The scar appeared at some time between imaging of this location by the orbiter’s Context Camera in July 2010 and again in May 2012. Based on apparent changes between those before-and-after images at lower resolution, researchers used HiRISE to acquire this new image on Nov. 19, 2013. The impact that excavated this crater threw some material as far as 9.3 miles (15 kilometers).

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the Context Camera.

For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been studying Mars from orbit since 2006, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

Curiosity lands safely, is spied by HiRISE in descent to Mars

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Photo: Mars Rover "Curiosity" hangs from its supersonic parachute. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Plummeting through the thin atmosphere of Mars, Mars rover “Curiosity” (still inside its protective enclosure) hangs from its supersonic parachute. White square indicates parachute (above) and protective aeroshell, below. This image captured by the “Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter” spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s most advanced Mars rover Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation.

Photo: Heavily-cropped MRO image of Curiosity on its parachute. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
This is a tight crop of the full image showing the remarkable detail produced by the MRO’s HiRISE instrument – Curiosity in its aeroshell suspended from its supersonic parachute (about 50 ft. in diameter). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the rocket backpack.

Curiosity landed at 10:32 p.m. PDT Aug. 5, (1:32 a.m. EDT Aug. 6) near the foot of a mountain three miles tall and 96 miles in diameter inside Gale Crater.

During a nearly two-year prime mission, the rover will investigate whether the region ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life.

The rover, powered by a radioactive heat source rather than solar cells, is expected to last at least two Earth years and can continue to operate through the incredibly cold and dark Martian winter. Winter was and is a danger for solar-powered rovers like Opportunity, still operating on the surface of Mars, as is accumulation of light-blocking dust.

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The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA’s Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona