Tag Archives: landing sites

THEMIS: Eberswalde Crater’s famous delta

Posted on November 9, 2016 by rburnham

THEMIS Image of the Day, November 9, 2016. Today’s false color image shows the delta deposit in Eberswalde Crater. Channels from the crater rim hosted material entering the crater. This crater and its delta deposit were shortlisted as a possible Curiosity … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

HRSC: Mawrth Vallis mosaic

Posted on September 26, 2016 by rburnham

Sculpted by ancient water flowing on the surface, Mawrth Vallis is one of the most remarkable outflow channels on Mars. The valley, once a potentially habitable place, is one of the main features of a region at the boundary between … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

HiRISE: Candidate landing site for 2020 rover

Posted on April 20, 2016 by rburnham

Candidate landing site for 2020 mission in Melas Chasma. Beautiful Mars series.

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

HiRISE: An east watershed for Jezero Crater

Posted on April 8, 2016 by rburnham

Jezero Crater is candidate future landing site that contains sediments deposited by at least three ancient rivers. This image was targeted to the eastern headlands of the river flowing in from that direction. In addition to complex erosional patterns, there … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

HiRISE: Mars 2020 candidate landing site in McLaughlin Crater

Posted on January 14, 2016 by rburnham

McLaughlin Crater (21.9 N, 337.6 E) is a large, approximately 95-kilometer diameter impact crater located north of Mawrth Vallis, in Arabia Terra, a region that was made famous by the book and movie “The Martian” by Andy Weir. McLaughlin Crater … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Mars 2020: Landing sites, old and new, ranked at 2nd workshop for NASA’s next rover mission

Posted on September 1, 2015 by rburnham

Designed to study rocks and soils to understand past habitable conditions on Mars and to seek signs of ancient microbial life, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover still has no formal name, but the work of selecting its landing site continues apace. … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

HiRISE: Curiosity landing site over time

Posted on March 30, 2015 by rburnham

Spacecraft that land in dusty areas of Mars create dark blast zone patterns where bright dust is blown away by the landing. Continued high-resolution monitoring with the HiRISE show these dark patterns fade over time in a surprising way. These … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Mars scars at landing sites fade, usually

Posted on March 27, 2015 by rburnham

A series of observations from Mars orbit show how dark blast zones that were created during the August 2012 landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover have faded inconsistently. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

InSight will land on Elysium Planitia lava flows

Posted on March 4, 2015 by rburnham

This map [made using THEMIS daytime infrared images] shows the single area under continuing evaluation as the InSight mission’s Mars landing site, as of a year before the mission’s May 2016 launch. The finalist ellipse marked within the northern portion … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

HiRISE: Possible landing site for ExoMars rover

Posted on August 27, 2014 by rburnham

One of the important roles of HiRISE is to take high resolution images of potential landing sites for future landing missions. This image is of an area called Aram Dorsum (also known by its old name, Oxia Palus) that has … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off