First HiRISE Image of Mars from Mapping Orbit: Ius Chasma, Valles Marineris

MRO's HiRISE camera captured its first image of Mars in the mapping orbit,
demonstrating the full resolution capability.  The image was acquired at 8:16
AM (Pacific time), and parts of the image became available to the HiRISE team
at 1:30 PM.  With the spacecraft at an altitude of 280 km, the [map
projected] image scale is 25 cm/pixel (about 10 inches/pixel).  

This image covers a small portion of the floor of Ius Chasma, one branch
of the giant Valles Marineris system of canyons.   The image illustrates a
variety of processes that have shaped the Martian surface.  There are bedrock
exposures of layered materials, which could be sedimentary rocks deposited in
water or from the air.   Some of the bedrock has been faulted and folded,
perhaps the result of large-scale forces in the crust or from a giant
landslide.  The darker unit of material at right includes many rocks.   The
image resolves rocks as small as 90 cm (3 feet) in diameter.  

Image TRA_000823_1720 was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft
on September 29, 2006. The
full image is centered at -7.8 degrees latitude,  279.5 degrees East
longitude.  The image is oriented such that north is to the top.  The range
to the target site was 297 km (185.6 miles).  At this distance the [map
projected] image scale is 25 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~75 cm
across are resolved.  The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:30 PM and
the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 59.7
degrees,
thus the sun was about 30.3 degrees above the horizon.  At a solar longitude
of 113.6 degrees, the season on Mars is Northern Summer / Southern Winter.

Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional
information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: 
http://www.nasa.gov/mro or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu.

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov.