Many people ask us if we are still imaging the Phoenix lander, and the answer is yes, as long as there is enough light. Here is our latest view of the landing site, acquired December 21, 2008. Conditions are hazy and dark because as the season approaches northern winter on Mars, the sun does not rise as high in the sky. Looks cold!
Last week was the third landing site selection workshop for MSL, the Mars Science Laboratory. The workshop has been well covered in other blogs. If you’re unfamiliar with the seven sites up for consideration, the Martian Chronicles has posted excellent summaries of each site, starting with Miyamoto Crater and working through Gale Crater.
Most of the presentations from the workshop have also been posted here. It’s rare to see one without some HiRISE images! 
Here at HiRISE, we are interested in this for several reasons – not only are some of our team members involved in the site selection, but HiRISE data have been integral to the process. HiRISE images have been used to study the small-scale geology of the sites, which is very powerful when combined with CRISM and other data sets to determine composition and mineralogy. HiRISE data has also provided calculations of the slopes and rock abundances around the landing sites, both of which are critical for the safety of the lander. We’ve been doing reconnaissance (the R in MRO!) of all of these sites since we started our primary mission! Here are some of the data we’ve produced for the MSL project.
)I know people here have their favorites among these seven sites – what’s yours?
You may have read that, late last year, the list of candidate landing sites for the next mission to be launched to Mars (the Mars Science Laboratory) was narrowed to six. HiRISE and other MRO instruments play a critical part in the selection process. MRO scientists at JPL put together a short presentation to show these six sites for outreach purposes (thanks!). I’m putting it up here in online form (i.e. blame me if it doesn’t work).
Tomorrow is the first launch opportunity for our sister mission, Phoenix. We don’t have a lot of day-to-day interaction with the Phoenix project, because their building is located a ways off-campus. It’s hard not to feel some camaraderie with them, though. Not only did HiRISE image a lot of possible landing sites, the mission is based right here in our department at the U of A.
If you aren’t super-excited about Phoenix yet, just try and not get excited by this awesome trailer they put together! (Alternate formats are available here, and on youtube, of course.) I was completely enthralled. It’s got everything — action, suspense, an emotional back-story, a totally Hollywood time-lapse mega-zoom to a night launch scene, and a rockin’ soundtrack!
The whole Phoenix website is fabulous, too, if you haven’t seen it yet.
Launches are risky times, and we’re all nervous and excited for Phoenix. All our best wishes go with it as it leaves this planet!
Today’s release includes thirty-five images—a large number of presents under the tree, so to speak. But they’re wrapped in plain paper from the recycle bin… the bows and ribbons and glossy glitzy wrap of captions, cut-out images and color processing are absent.
Further, many of these are samples of the Northern Plains (reconnaissance for the Phoenix Mars Lander) which are very flat and featureless. To continue the X-mas gift metaphor, they are the HiRISE equivalent of tube socks.
But there are some real gems in there, mind-boggling terrain. Given the fairly small size of the HiRISE science team and their busy schedules, I would guess that members of the public have a good chance of being the first human to really look closely at the highest resolution of these corners of the Mars.
The 9 new images released yesterday are now also available with the Zoomify Flash applet.
This includes the first high resolution look near a candidate landing site for the Phoenix Mars Scout mission, which launches next year.
This is currently the best way for the ordinary computer user to get a good look at the detail in our images.
Stay tuned for more in the next few days!
