Comments on: MRO reaches its mapping orbit!

By: Zen Punk

Zen Punk — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 06:43:01 +0000

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) consists of 2 narrow angle camera heads (NACs) to provide 0.5 m-scale panchromatic images over a 5-km swath, a wide angle camera head (WAC) to provide images at a scale of 100 m in seven color bands, and a common Sequence and Compressor System (SCS) to sequence image acquisition by all camera heads and compress their data before transmission to the spacecraft.

I don’t know what Panchromatic means, but it looks like LRO will be able to image the S-IVB’s and LEM descent stages on the moon.

By: CR

CR — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 03:18:40 +0000

Actually, I think there’s an entry or two about that right here at Bad Astronomy!
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/hoagland/face.html

By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:09:17 +0000

A few years back they actually did acheive better resolution images of the ‘face’ on mars…turns out the face looks more like a butte! Of course Hoagland prefers the lower resolution images; there’s always some way to see exactly what you want to see. I don’t have a link but should be easy to find on the internet.

By: Irishman

Irishman — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:33:54 +0000

I was thinking, I want to see those glass worms at 1m res!

By: Will.

Will. — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:37:08 +0000

“Then JPL would have to prepare a separate mission to send the pocket calculator down to Mars.” Yeah, O.K. I’d be the “your” attached to the pocket calculator. For shure.

By: Lorne Ipsum

Lorne Ipsum — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:21:52 +0000

Note to GAry 7…

From what I’ve read, our spy sats *CAN’T* read the image of a license plate; you need an SR-71 for that. Spy sats have resolution primarily limited by the size of atmospheric convection cells, about 4 – 6″. To get something like this at Mars, you’d need to send something about the size / mass of Hubble — WAY too heavy to send there, given current technology.

As for MRO, it about has the best resolution we can make use of, given limitations of the current DSN. Mind you, resolution doesn’t do you much good if you can’t get the pictures back. As a result, a trade that has to be made is resolution vs. coveerage. Even at MRO’s resolution (a lot better than for previous birds, but nowhere near 6″), bandwidth limitations mean that MRO can only image 2% of the surface of Mars at full resolution in its 5 year nominal lifespan.

Future missions will be able to send vastly more data back, once spacecraft are flying (and DSN is supporting) laser communications, but with the current state of RF technology, this is the best that can be done.

Lorne

By: kit

kit — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:15:58 +0000

“…My idea of hi res is being able to read the numbers on your pocket calculator from orbit…”

Then JPL would have to prepare a separate mission to send the pocket calculator down to Mars.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:54:02 +0000

HiRes? At one meter? So how come our spy sats can read the image of a license plate but we can’t get such in orbit of MArs? Hardly seems fair that we spend so much keeping an eye on problem folks on earth, but can’t send that tech. to a major planet.
My idea of hi res is being able to read the numbers on your pocket calculator from orbit.

GAry 7

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:27:14 +0000

So now whats our total number of man-made objects that have been sent to Mars? That number seems to be climbing quite a bit lately.

By: L Ron Hubbub

L Ron Hubbub — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 12:52:34 +0000

Finally we wil lget hi-res pics of the Martian cities!!!

/just kidding, folks

By: Kaptain K

Kaptain K — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 11:21:46 +0000

=====
You know that wouldnâ€™t make Hoagie shut up.
=====

Yeah, I know. He’d probably say that JPL “doctored” the images before releasing them.

By: MaDeR

MaDeR — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:53:31 +0000

“Of course, the HBs will be crying foul that nobody has sent cameras with one-meter resolution to image the Apollo landing sites on Earthâ€™s moon.”

Yep, it indicates that mankind is more interested with Mars (actually 4 orbiters, 2 rovers, with more to come) than our nearby Moon. With Vision, this will change. For example, future LRO mission can spot largest artifical structures left on Moon by man.

By: icemith

icemith — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 09:44:04 +0000

If that thing is the size of a bus, what happens if it finds something the size of a bus stop? And if someone is waiting there??

Ivan.

By: Jack Hagerty

Jack Hagerty — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 05:53:49 +0000

When they were done with the aerobraking, they would have had to do a circularizing burn at the new apogee or else the perigee (uh, perimars? periares?) would stay within the atmosphere until the whole thing came down. How much fuel do they have remaining to do orbital maintenance? That is usually the limiting factor in an orbiting probe.

- Jack

By: CR

CR — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 04:58:13 +0000

Of course, the HBs will be crying foul that nobody has sent cameras with one-meter resolution to image the Apollo landing sites on Earth’s moon.

Anyway, looking forward to even more spectacular views of Mars in the months ahead!

By: Zoot

Zoot — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:55:12 +0000

The size of a bus, huh?

Size I enjoy crashes I have to ask: How big was the probe that they crashed on the moon last week? And will they be crashing this one into mars?

By: BigJohn

BigJohn — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:36:07 +0000

I too can hardly wait for the ‘good stuff’ to start showing up. I expect that this is gonna be incredible!

By: JediBear

JediBear — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:21:08 +0000

You know that wouldn’t make Hoagie shut up.

As I recall, the long-range shots from HiRISE were incredible. I’m similarly impatient to see some of the close-range stuff. This is SO cool.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:20:39 +0000

“Might it be possible for the probe to spot the MERs, Vikings, and Pathfinder probes?”

Actually I was thinking along the lines of Beagles and Polar Landers (both AWOL).

By: Kaptain K

Kaptain K — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:17:10 +0000

If I was in charge at JPL, I would make the first target the Cydonia region (the face on Mars) just to shut up Richard c. Hoagland!!!

By: Grand Lunar

Grand Lunar — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 20:42:32 +0000

I didn’t know that MRO was as large as a bus. Isn’t that about the size of Cassini too? Least the large class of probes aren’t dead.

Anyway, it’ll be facinating to see what MRO turns up on Mars.

Might it be possible for the probe to spot the MERs, Vikings, and Pathfinder probes?