Tag: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
-
MRO observes dormant InSight lander; collects data on Martian dust movements
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) recently imaged NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight) lander, which has been dormant on the Martian surface for two years. The new imagery highlights movements in Martian surface dust around InSight, providing planetary scientists with more information on Mars’s climate and atmospheric qualities. On Nov.…
-
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter camera spots Perseverance rover after landing
The HiRISE camera NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this picture of the Perseverance rover Feb. 24. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona A high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the Perseverance rover after landing on the Red Planet last month, showing the nuclear-powered robot sitting on the Martian surface with its supersonic parachute and…
-
Perseverance rover aces first test drive on Mars
This image was taken during the first drive of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars on March 4, 2021, shortly after its first drive after landing. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Two weeks into its mission of exploration on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has completed its first test drive and returned some 7,000 images from its station in Jezero…
-
NASA checks SpaceX’s potential Starship landing sites on Mars, with water in mind
An artists’s conception shows SpaceX’s Starship craft on Mars. (SpaceX Illustration) NASA is helping SpaceX get a fix on potential landing sites on Mars for its Starship super-spaceship, with an emphasis on Arcadia Planitia and Amazonis Planitia, regions where deposits of water ice may be found. Another focus of NASA’s reconnaissance campaign in Phlegra Montes,…
-
NASA orbiter spots InSight lander (and its junked hardware) on Mars’ surface
NASA’s InSight lander (at center, with its two solar arrays), its heat shield (at right) and its parachute (at left) were imaged on Dec. 6 and 11 by the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Click on the image for a larger version. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona Photo) Two weeks after…
-
NASA orbiter spots InSight lander (and its junked hardware) on Mars’ surface
NASA’s InSight lander (at center, with its two solar arrays), its heat shield (at right) and its parachute (at left) were imaged on Dec. 6 and 11 by the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Click on the image for a larger version. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona Photo) Two weeks after…
-
NASA is counting on long-lived Mars orbiter lasting another decade
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, seen here before its launch in 2005, carries the largest high-gain antenna ever sent to Mars for data relay and science downlinks. Credit: NASA NASA’s focus at the red planet has shifted to collecting and bringing rock samples back to Earth — a feat that could take a decade and leave…
-
Scientists suggest streaks on Martian hillsides are dry flows
This inner slope of a Martian crater has several of the seasonal dark streaks called “recurrent slope lineae,” or RSL, that a November 2017 report interprets as granular flows, rather than darkening due to flowing water. The image is from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/USGS Intermittent flows that appear on…
-
Trickles of water on Mars? Scientists say they’re more likely to be trickles of sand
Recurring slope lineae appear as dark streaks in this picture from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (NASA / JPL / Univ. of Arizona / Lujendra Ojha et al. / Geophysical Research Letters) Scientists have long been intrigued by what seem to be wet streaks that appear on the slopes of Martian craters…
-
First aerial color photo of Mars rover’s “hole-in-one” landing site
The bright landing platform left behind by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in 2004 is visible inside Eagle Crater, at upper right in this April 8, 2017, observation by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona NASA has released the first high-resolution aerial color image of the Opportunity rover’s landing site on a sprawling…