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THEMIS: Jezero Crater delta landing site
Posted on August 12, 2019 by rburnham
THEMIS Image of the Day, August 12, 2019. At the top of today’s VIS image is a delta deposit that was created by the flow from the rim channel into the crater. Deltas form when sediments settle out due to … Continue reading →
Posted in Reports|Tagged deltas, fluvial landforms, fluvial processes, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jezero Crater, JPL, landing sites, M2020, Mars 2020, Mars 2020 rover, NASA|Comments Off
HiRISE: Landing in Oxia Palus
Posted on June 13, 2019 by rburnham
This image shows a cratered area to the southeast of the ExoMars 2020 Rosalind Franklin rover landing site at Oxia Palus. Selecting and characterizing landing sites is a balance between having science targets and avoiding potential obstacles, and HiRISE is … Continue reading →
Posted in Reports|Tagged ESA, European Space Agency, ExoMars, ExoMars 2020, ExoMars 2020 rover, High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, HiRISE, landing sites, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MRO, NASA, Oxia Palus, Oxia Planum, Rosalind Franklin, Roscosmos, University of Arizona|Comments Off
Seeing Mars with 2020 vision: Jezero Crater and Oxia Planum
Posted on March 7, 2019 by rburnham
Both NASA and ESA hope their next Mars rovers will find evidence that life once thrived on Mars, but they have different strategies to reach this goal. Their landing site choices reflect this difference. Engineers are assembling two ambitious rover … Continue reading →
Posted in Reports|Tagged ESA, European Space Agency, ExoMars, ExoMars 2020, ExoMars 2020 rover, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jezero Crater, JPL, landing sites, M2020, Mars 2020, Mars 2020 rover, NASA, Oxia Planum, Rosalind Franklin, Roscosmos|Comments Off
Mars 2020: Jezero Crater flyover
Posted on December 14, 2018 by rburnham
An animated flyover of the Martian surface explains why Mars’ Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide ancient lake-delta system, is the best place for the Mars 2020 rover to find and collect promising samples for a possible future return to Earth. [More … Continue reading →
Posted in Reports|Tagged Jezero Crater, landing sites, M2020, Mars 2020, Mars 2020 rover, NASA|Comments Off
HiRISE: InSight lander on Mars
Posted on December 13, 2018 by rburnham
This is a HiRISE image of the NASA InSight lander, plus other pieces of hardware on Mars after its successful landing on 26 November 2018.It looks like the heat shield (upper right) has its dark outside facing down, since it … Continue reading →
Posted in Reports|Tagged Elysium Planitia, High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, HiRISE, InSight, Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, landing sites, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MRO, NASA, University of Arizona|Comments Off
HiRISE: Spring frost on a cold world
Posted on November 28, 2018 by rburnham
Winter on Mars comes with a blanket of carbon dioxide snow. During the spring “thaw,” this snow evaporates into the atmosphere, lingering longest in the shallow depressions such as the troughs of polygon patterned ground. Enhanced color shows the carbon … Continue reading →
Posted in Reports|Tagged CO2 frost, High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, HiRISE, landing sites, Mars Phoenix, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MRO, NASA, Phoenix lander, snow, University of Arizona|Comments Off
Mars 2020: Media telecon on landing site, Nov. 19
Posted on November 16, 2018 by rburnham
NASA will host a media teleconference at 9 a.m. PST (noon EST) Monday, Nov. 19, to provide details about the Mars 2020 rover’s landing site on the Red Planet. The rover, currently under construction at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), … Continue reading →
Posted in Reports|Tagged Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, landing sites, M2020, Mars 2020, Mars 2020 rover, NASA|Comments Off
HiRISE: An ExoMars landing site
Posted on October 31, 2018 by rburnham
HiRISE plays an important role in finding suitable landing sites for future rover missions. Scientists have narrowed down the candidate landing sites for the upcoming European ExoMars rover mission to two regions: the plains of Oxia and Mawrth Vallis. Images … Continue reading →
Posted in Reports|Tagged ESA, European Space Agency, ExoMars, ExoMars 2020, ExoMars 2020 rover, High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, HiRISE, landing sites, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mawrth Vallis, MRO, NASA, Oxia Planum, University of Arizona|Comments Off
How best to ‘stick’ a landing at a particular site
Posted on October 22, 2018 by rburnham
Selecting a landing site for a rover headed to Mars is a lengthy process that normally involves large committees of scientists and engineers. These committees typically spend several years weighing a mission’s science objectives against a vehicle’s engineering constraints, to … Continue reading →
Posted in Reports|Tagged landing sites|Comments Off
HiRISE: Terrain between candidate landing sites
Posted on October 22, 2018 by rburnham
Sample terrain between candidate landing sites for the Mars 2020 mission. Beautiful Mars series. [More at links]
Posted in Reports|Tagged landing sites, Mars 2020, Mars 2020 rover, Midway|Comments Off
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