Toward the end of its Primary Mapping Mission, Mars Global Surveyor’s Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) acquired one of its most spectacular pictures of layered sedimentary rock exposed within the ancient crater Becquerel. Pictures such as this one from January 25, 2001, underscore the fact that you never know from one day to the next what the next MOC images will uncover.
February 5th, 2001
New Mars Images: ‘Shark’s Teeth’ Dunes and More Signs of Water
More signs of water, dunes that resemble shark’s teeth and the passage of time are chronicled in the latest batch of Red Planet images released by Malin Space Sciences Systems, the operator of the camera aboard NASA’s current Mars orbiter. Mars Global Surveyor ended its main mission last week after collecting global data throughout a complete 26-month Martian year. The probe is set to continue taking pictures of Mars through 2002 on an extended mission. So far, images taken by this spacecraft’s camera have been interpreted as showing evidence of ancient lake beds and recent water seeping up to the surface.
February 2nd, 2001
What’s that? Probe sees strange surfaces on Mars Spaceflight Now
Sometimes Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images show things that look very bizzare. Unique among the MOC images is a suite of pictures from northwestern Hellas Planitia.
January 31st, 2001
New era begins for Global Surveyor
NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which has collected more information about the red planet than all previous missions combined, completes its primary science mission today and begins a new era of continued exploration. “By any conceivable measure the scientific impact of Mars Global Surveyor has been extraordinary. In many ways we now know Mars to be a different planet than when the spacecraft arrived in 1997, and our perspective continues to evolve as the data keep flowing,” said Dr. Arden Albee, Global Surveyor project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “In some aspects, we now have better maps of Mars than we do of Earth.”
January 17th, 2001
The Changing Face Of Mars
NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor will complete its primary mapping mission of Mars on January 31, 2001 after a mapping mission that lasted one full Mars year (687 days). During this time MGS was able to globally map the planet while monitoring seasonal changes. With the spacecraft and instruments still healthy and collecting excellent data NASA has approved an extended mission that will commence directly after the mapping mission. As a result data from the MOLA laser altimeter instrument will keep flowing.
December 13th, 2000
Mars Global Surveyor Ready for Extended Mission
NASA has given a thumbs-up for an extension of the Mars Global Surveyor
December 11th, 2000
MGS Pries Secrets Out of Red Planet Aviation Week & Space Technology
Last week’s revelation from Mars Global Surveyor data–that sedimentary rocks suggest past bodies of water on the red planet–is just the latest discovery by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory spacecraft.
December 5th, 2000
Red Planet’s wet and warm past
High-resolution pictures of Mars show evidence for sedimentary rocks laid down by ancient lakes and shallow seas. It is a discovery of huge importance, say scientists. With these images, and the evidence earlier this year that water may have flowed on the surface of the Red Planet in the recent geological past, scientists are realising just how like Earth Mars could once have been.
November 29th, 2000
Frosty Mars Mugs for Camera
NASA has released a quartet of Martian images that show several of the Red Planet