Mars Express (MEX) - ESA orbiter

Palomar · 2005-06-01 11:32:16

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Expres … .html]Iani Chaos opens into Ares Vallis

*Spectacular returns from Mars Express like always. Check out the "pan over" feature, towards the middle of the page. Cool. Those subtle hues are fabulous.

Images obtained in October 2004 from a height of 350 km.

Water erosion, block rocks (or "knobs") several hundred meters tall, the possibility of ice previously stored in the Martian highlands and melted by volcanic heat, etc., discussed.

--Cindy

Grypd · 2005-06-01 11:55:15

Wow.

This actually gives me a little bit of a concern to any base where such a dramatic flood could hit. Mayhaps some form of flood defence or flood wall may be a necessity.

RobS · 2005-06-01 21:45:52

These floods are billions of years old, or maybe hundreds of millions. By the time we choose a permanent landing site we'll have detailed radar data for ground ice and will know where it is. I doubt there are many places on Mars where contemporary eruptions of floods are a possibility. They may exist, but they are rare.

-- RobS

aldo12xu · 2005-06-05 03:44:28

If you really like the Iani and Ares photo, you might want to check out my video simulating a flyby over the Ares valley and the humocky terrain of Iani. It's a 6 minute animation of the recently released Mars Express perspective photos.

Hope you like it!

Cheers,
Aldo.

http://www.marsgeo.com/]http://www.marsgeo.com/

Palomar · 2005-06-07 16:06:50

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … ]Preparing for deployment of 2nd boom

*Is set to "unfurl" between June 13 and 21.

As for the 3rd boom:

The deployment of the third (7-metre) third MARSIS boom is not considered critical. It will be commanded only once the ESA ground control team have re-acquired signal from the spacecraft, and made sure with a sequence of tests that the second boom is correctly locked into position and the spacecraft is well under control.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-06-08 13:26:36

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 … ora.html]I had a hunch this would be proven on Mars:

*Yep. Auroral lights discovered at Mars. Says an astronaut standing on Mars would likely see them as a faint bluish pillar of light.

The phenomenon on Mars is created in the same manner. But Mars has a much thinner atmosphere and only weak magnetic fields, its internal dynamo having died out long ago. Remnants of martian magnetism exist in pockets of rock, and that's where the new study focused.

Kudos to ESA and Mars Express!

--Cindy

::EDIT:: A different article says the aurora detected by ME was 19 miles wide. http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-atm … c.html]The source, and better explanations too.

Palomar · 2005-06-10 10:26:50

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Expres … l]Coprates Chasma and Coprates Catena

*Most recent spectacular images from Mars Express. Those canyons are gorgeous. We're looking north in the first photo, apparently.

Images obtained during Orbit 449.

The trough of Coprates Chasma appears in the north (right-hand side) of the colour image here, and ranges from approximately 60 km to 100 km wide and extends 8-9 km below the surrounding plains.

Congratulations again to ESA on this wonderful mission. :band: Best photos of Mars ever are to ESA's credit.

--Cindy

Rxke · 2005-06-10 13:54:15

As an European, I probably should say I agree with you?

But I still think S&O's pictures/footage are waaay better.

IMO, the ME's pictures are too heavily digitally enhanced-processed... Can't shrug off the feeling I'm looking at a computergame of sorts...

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2005-06-20 19:56:20

Smooth deployment for second MARSIS

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Expres … U8E_0.html

16th of June 2005
The second 20-metre antenna boom of the MARSIS instrument on board Mars Express was successfully – and smoothly – deployed

SpaceNut · 2005-06-21 10:38:38

Soon we will have real dat on under water reserves but for now the images show promise of some locked up as frost.
Prospecting for Martian Ice

http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/8295.jpg

Scientists combined several images from Mars Express to create this 3-dimensional image of a 35-kilometer-wide (22-mile-wide) unnamed crater in the far northern hemisphere. A patch of water ice sits on the crater floor. The colors are very close to natural, but the vertical relief is exaggerated three times. Due to the angle of solar illumination, frost remains on the crater's southern (right) rim.

Can not wait to see more of these images, they are fantastic...

alan · 2005-06-21 21:33:06

Last boom deployed
http://www.newscientistspace.com/articl … ...nt.html

Julius Caeser · 2005-06-22 03:24:16

When can we expect first results from MARSIS experiment?Does anyone know? :;):

Palomar · 2005-06-23 13:51:29

When can we expect first results from MARSIS experiment?Does anyone know? :;):

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n050 … dar/]*This article might answer...

...some of your questions.

First checkout was good. It'll go through a commissioning phase for 10 days (or 38 orbits): From June 23 to July 4. After that, it's ready to go with nominal science observations. Seems the first order of business will be observing the night-side of Mars.

So fantastic that it'll be able to do subsurface examinations.

--Cindy

Rxke · 2005-06-23 16:28:14

Oh boy...

Now we'll finally know!

Well, probably not, there will of course be 101 possible interpretations of the data... again :angry:

aldo12xu · 2005-06-23 23:30:59

I just animated the photo of the "ice crater" that was published in the Sky and Telescope article mentioned above. It's a 3 minute video that spirals in towards the ice pack.

So have a look, it's right on my homepage.

Palomar · 2005-06-24 06:53:17

Oh boy...
Now we'll finally know!
Well, probably not, there will of course be 101 possible interpretations of the data... again :angry:

:hm:

Rik, you don't seem too optimistic about MARSIS.

?

--Cindy

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2005-07-02 07:06:31

Actually I posted in the new thread for http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic … 322]Marsis to probe for subsurface water

how much water is on Mars

did the NASA rovers discover more info on this ? :hm:

What is ESA's Mars Express expected to find , how much volume of water ?

Rxke · 2005-07-02 10:59:16

Not too optimistic, in a way, no...

Remember the Lunar Prospector built specifically (amongst other things) to search for water? Results are inconclusive, because open to interpretation. And that was even when using a neutron spectrometer, so using a RADAR to look for water on a body of which we do not know ZIP re: subsurface structure/makeup, the results will, and I predict: pointing to water, very probably water, but still... it could be something else, etc etc because we have little or no reference to compare the results with.

Oh, it will be a marvelous experiment, but conclusive? Naaahhh...

Palomar · 2005-07-15 12:46:44

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Expres … ]Nicholson Crater

*Va-va-va-VOOM! Spec-tacular. :up:

NC is located near the southern edge of Amazonis Planitia. Images obtained during Orbit 1104.

NC is aprox 100 km in diameter.

The central raised feature measures aprox 55 km in length by 37 km in diameter by 3.5 km in height. They're unsure as to its formation processes.

The close-up perspective photo is especially striking.

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2005-07-19 17:36:53

I'm a bit slow to comment on this ESA image, Cindy, but I agree with you entirely that this is a "*Va-va-va-VOOM! Spec-tacular" picture.
The gullies all over that mound just shout "Water erosion!", at least to me.
But then, I'm no geologist.

Palomar · 2005-07-19 20:13:51

I'm a bit slow to comment on this ESA image, Cindy, but I agree with you entirely that this is a "*Va-va-va-VOOM! Spec-tacular" picture.
The gullies all over that mound just shout "Water erosion!", at least to me.
But then, I'm no geologist.

*Shaun, so nice to see you at the boards again. Mars Express really does take the most spectacular photos of Mars (I swear you can nearly run your fingers through that sand), and the articles accompanying are so concise yet adequately detailed.

Kudos to ESA. It's been a fabulous mission.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-07-20 07:05:42

*Did I miss this?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/ … xpress.jpg

Quite a photo. Haven't time to scroll back through past posts and the pics within them.

Is being hosted by Astropix. Here's the accompanying caption:

Explanation: What lies on the floor of this Martian crater? A frozen patch of water ice. The robotic Mars Express spacecraft took the above image in early February. The ice pocket was found in a 35-kilometer wide crater that resides 70 degrees north of the Martian equator. There, sunlight is blocked by the 300-meter tall crater wall from vaporizing the water-ice on the crater floor into the thin Martian atmosphere. The ice pocket may be as deep as 200 meters thick. Frost can be seen around the inner edge on the upper right part of the crater, while part of the lower left crater wall is bathed in sunlight. The existence of water-ice pockets inside craters near the Martian North Pole, like that pictured above and others noted previously, give clues not only about surface conditions in the Martian past but also possible places where future water-based astronauts might do well to land.

--Cindy

REB · 2005-07-20 10:41:54

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050720.html

I saw it here. Interesting crater. Looks like the water ponded and then froze. Ice sublimes in the dry air. It can not be too old unless it is being replenished. I have been looking for craters like this.

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2005-07-22 07:07:14

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Expres … ]Nicholson Crater
*Va-va-va-VOOM! Spec-tacular. :up:
NC is located near the southern edge of Amazonis Planitia. Images obtained during Orbit 1104.
NC is aprox 100 km in diameter.
The central raised feature measures aprox 55 km in length by 37 km in diameter by 3.5 km in height. They're unsure as to its formation processes.
The close-up perspective photo is especially striking.
--Cindy

wow, what a wonderful sight 8)

aldo12xu · 2005-07-27 09:36:16

If you liked the photo of the crater with the patch of ice in the interior, you might like the flyover video I created from it. It's on my videos page. But the one I just completed, flying over Coprates Chasma, is one of the more complicated ones I've generated -- and one of the more longer ones, at 7 minutes. It's right on my homepage below.

Hope you get a kick out of it

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Re: Mars Express (MEX) - ESA orbiter

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#170 2005-07-19 17:36:53

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#171 2005-07-19 20:13:51

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