| The latest test images of Mars from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter were taken of Mars at 8:36 p.m. Pacific Standard Time Thursday 23 March 2006
The three cameras were tested for around 40 minutes and inlcuded the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, the Context Camera and the Mars Color Imager.
Chief image analyser of the High resolution camera, Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona explained that "These high-resolution images of Mars are thrilling, and unique given the early morning time-of-day. The final orbit of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be over Mars in the mid-afternoon, like Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey,"
Steve Saunders, the mission's program scientist at NASA Headquarters also explained that "These images provide the first opportunity to test camera settings and the spacecraft's ability to point the camera with Mars filling the instruments' field of view,"
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The equivalent of five CD-ROMs worth of data, about 25 gigabits of imaging data,were received through NASA's Deep Space Network station at Canberra, Australia, and sent to JPL.
image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona |