Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

The Earth and Moon as Seen from Mars

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(Above) The Earth and Moon as Seen from Mars

This is an image of Earth and the Moon, acquired at a range of 142 million kilometers by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

On the day this image was taken, the Japanese Kayuga (Selene) spacecraft was en route from the Earth to the Moon, and has since returned spectacular images and movies.

On the Earth image we can make out the west coast outline of South America at lower right, although the clouds are the dominant features. These clouds are so bright, compared with the Moon, that they are saturated in the HiRISE images. In fact, the RED-filter image was almost completely saturated, the blue-green image had significant saturation, and the brightest clouds were saturated in the IR image. This color image required a fair amount of processing to make a nice-looking release.

The Moon image is unsaturated but brightened relative to Earth for this composite. The lunar images are useful for calibration of the camera.

Posted
August 17th, 2009

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Martian Dust Devil with Track and Shadow

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This telescopic view from orbit around Mars catches a Martian dust devil in action in the planet’s southern hemisphere. The swirling vortex of dust can be seen near the center of the image. The shadow cast by this column of dust can be seen in the upper left while the dark track left by the passage of the dust devil is evident in the lower right.

This is a cutout from an image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on June 15, 2009. The scene is at 68.6 degrees south latitude, 11.4 degrees east longitude.

Dust devils on Mars form the same way that they do on Earth. The ground heats up during the daytime, warming the air immediately above the surface. This hot layer of air rises and the cooler air above falls, creating vertical convection cells. A horizontal gust of wind causes the convection cells to rotate, resulting in a dust devil. As the dust devil moves across the surface of Mars it can pick up and disturb loose dust, leaving behind a track.

Posted
August 14th, 2009

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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Safe After Computer Swap

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NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is in safe mode, a precautionary standby status, and in communications with Earth after unexpectedly switching to its backup computer on Thurs. Aug. 6.

Engineers are working to determine the cause of the spontaneous swap from the orbiter’s “A” side computer and subsystems to the redundant “B” side. They have successfully increased the communication rate from the orbiter, but some engineering data about what was occurring just before the side swap may never be available. The team expects it will be at least several days until normal science operations resume.

The event has some similarities with, but also differences from, two earlier instances of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spontaneously swapping sides.

Jim Erickson, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, “The spacecraft is safe, with good temperatures and battery charge and with solar panels properly facing the sun. The flight team is cautiously taking steps to bring it back to normal operations.”

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been studying Mars with an advanced set of instruments since 2006. It has returned more data about the planet than all other past and current missions to Mars combined.

Posted
August 8th, 2009

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Mars Orbiter Resumes Science Observations

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NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is examining Mars again with its scientific instruments after successfully transitioning out of a precautionary standby mode triggered by an unexpected June 3 rebooting of its computer.

Engineers brought the spacecraft out of the standby mode on June 6. Cameras and other scientific instruments resumed operation June 9.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached Mars in 2006 and has returned more data about the planet than all other Mars missions combined.

The June 3 rebooting resembled a Feb. 23 event on the spacecraft. Engineers are re-investigating possible root causes for both events. The new investigation includes reconsidering the likelihood of erroneous voltage readings resulting from cosmic rays or solar particles hitting an electronic component.

Posted
June 10th, 2009

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Mars Orbiter Enters Safe Mode

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NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is in safe mode and in communications with Earth after an unexpected rebooting of its computer Wednesday evening, June 3.

The spontaneous reboot resembles a Feb. 23 event on the spacecraft. Engineers concluded the most likely cause for that event was a cosmic ray or solar particle hitting electronics and causing an erroneous voltage reading.

Jim Erickson, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, “The spacecraft is sending down high-rate engineering data, power positive, batteries fully charged, sun pointed and thermally safe. The flight team is cautiously bringing the orbiter back to normal operations. We should be resuming our exploration of Mars by next week.”

The reboot occurred at approximately 6:10 p.m. PDT (9:10 p.m. EDT) on June 3. This is the sixth time since the spacecraft began its primary science phase in November 2006 that it has entered safe mode, which is its programmed precaution when it senses a condition for which it does not know a more specific response.

Posted
June 6th, 2009

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