Mars in Pictures

March 5, 2008 10:03 AM

The evolution of Mars imaging from orbit: Mariner 4 (1964), Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 (both 1969), Mariner 9 (1971) (all NASA), Mars 5 (1973) (USSR), Viking 1 (1975), Viking 2 (1976), Mars Global Surveyor (1996), Mars Odyssey (2001) (NASA), Mars Express (2003) (ESA), up to this spy-quality shot of an active avalanche taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2005).
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot (11 comments total)

Awesome. Browsing the site, the first thing I find is Earth and Moon as seen from Mars orbiter.
posted by DU at 10:13 AM on March 5, 2008

Cool. I love looking at this stuff. The avalanche is especially cool, reminding me that there really is activity on what I think of as a lifeless orb.

Also: eponysterical!
posted by slogger at 10:20 AM on March 5, 2008

Nice post.

My favorite pictures, which I can't seem to find just now, are birdseye views of the rovers and other hardware on the surface. There's something about seeing one spacecraft from another spacecraft that gives me a wicked chub.

I'm looking forward to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to be launched later this year. For the first time we should get images of the Apollo hardware from orbit. It'll be fun seeing how the conspiracy theorist nutjobs attempt to prove Photoshoppery.
posted by bondcliff at 10:30 AM on March 5, 2008

My reaction: "Neat (up through voyager), cool (voyager) wow, wow, my god, WOW"

Excellent post.
posted by Hactar at 10:32 AM on March 5, 2008

Obligatory Carl Sagan youtubery.
posted by elpapacito at 10:32 AM on March 5, 2008

The avalanche shot is literally awesome. It really shows Mars as a physical, dynamic place, not just a still landscape like we're used to seeing.
posted by brundlefly at 10:34 AM on March 5, 2008

For the first time we should get images of the Apollo hardware from orbit. It'll be fun seeing how the conspiracy theorist nutjobs attempt to prove Photoshoppery.

If you are going to ignore the Apollo-era evidence, why would you balk at ignoring modern-day evidence? "There is no lunar orbiter" or "these images are CGI" are still viable (in the sense of "utterable by idiots") options.
posted by DU at 10:42 AM on March 5, 2008

"Ingrid's Avalanches" would be a great band name.
posted by Scoo at 11:37 AM on March 5, 2008

Heh. I was thinking about ways to put that avalanche image in an FPP. Great stuff.
posted by Artw at 12:31 PM on March 5, 2008

My avalanches, my avalanches, my lovely Martian avalanches.

Check it out.
posted by CynicalKnight at 2:19 PM on March 5, 2008

nice seeing a russian shot...they had a miserable record at mars...i have a copy of the nasa atlas of the solar system that has a timeline of all the planetary probes ever launched...the russians sent something like 40 or 50 probes there that all failed...most of them completely...1 or 2 that lasted only a few minutes...sad...they are the only ones that ever succeeded at landing on venus, though...

those avalanches are madness!
posted by sexyrobot at 2:38 AM on March 6, 2008