scholarly journals Identification of the Beagle 2 lander on Mars

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. 170785 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Bridges ◽  
J. Clemmet ◽  
M. Croon ◽  
M. R. Sims ◽  
D. Pullan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Major Axis ◽  
Solar Panels ◽  
Specular Reflections ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Imaging Science ◽  
Resolution Imaging ◽  
Beagle 2

The 2003 Beagle 2 Mars lander has been identified in Isidis Planitia at 90.43° E, 11.53° N, close to the predicted target of 90.50° E, 11.53° N. Beagle 2 was an exobiology lander designed to look for isotopic and compositional signs of life on Mars, as part of the European Space Agency Mars Express (MEX) mission. The 2004 recalculation of the original landing ellipse from a 3-sigma major axis from 174 km to 57 km, and the acquisition of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) imagery at 30 cm per pixel across the target region, led to the initial identification of the lander in 2014. Following this, more HiRISE images, giving a total of 15, including red and blue-green colours, were obtained over the area of interest and searched, which allowed sub-pixel imaging using super high-resolution techniques. The size (approx. 1.5 m), distinctive multilobed shape, high reflectivity relative to the local terrain, specular reflections, and location close to the centre of the planned landing ellipse led to the identification of the Beagle 2 lander. The shape of the imaged lander, although to some extent masked by the specular reflections in the various images, is consistent with deployment of the lander lid and then some or all solar panels. Failure to fully deploy the panels—which may have been caused by damage during landing—would have prohibited communication between the lander and MEX and commencement of science operations. This implies that the main part of the entry, descent and landing sequence, the ejection from MEX, atmospheric entry and parachute deployment, and landing worked as planned with perhaps only the final full panel deployment failing.

scholarly journals IDENTIFYING SURFACE CHANGES ON HRSC IMAGES OF THE MARS SOUTH POLAR RESIDUAL CAP (SPRC)

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B4 ◽  
pp. 463-469
Author(s):  
Alfiah Rizky Diana Putri ◽  
Panagiotis Sidiropoulos ◽  
Jan-Peter Muller
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Martian Surface ◽  
Mars Global Surveyor ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Imaging Science ◽  
Resolution Imaging ◽  
Visual Imaging ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Surface Changes

The surface of Mars has been an object of interest for planetary research since the launch of Mariner 4 in 1964. Since then different cameras such as the Viking Visual Imaging Subsystem (VIS), Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Context Camera (CTX) and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) have been imaging its surface at ever higher resolution. The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board of the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express, has been imaging the Martian surface, since 25th December 2003 until the present-day. HRSC has covered 100 % of the surface of Mars, about 70 % of the surface with panchromatic images at 10-20 m/pixel, and about 98 % at better than 100 

Viscous Flows Formed The Branched Ridges Of Antoniadi Crater, Mars

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Mangold ◽  
Livio Tornabene ◽  
Susan Conway ◽  
Anthony Guimpier ◽  
Axel Noblet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Imaging System ◽  
Flow Direction ◽  
Viscous Flows ◽  
Engineering Teams ◽  
The North ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Imaging Science ◽  
Italian Space Agency ◽  
University Of Bern

<p>Antoniadi basin is a 330 km diameter Noachian basin localized in the East of Arabia Terra that contains a network of ridges with a tree-like organization. Branched ridges, such as these can form by a variety of processes including the inversion of fluvial deposits, thus potentially highlighting aqueous processes of interest for understanding Mars’ climate evolution. Here, we test this hypothesis by analyzing in details data from Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS), High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).</p><p>Branched ridges are up to 10 km long and from 10 to 200 m wide without obvious organization in width. The branched ridges texture is rubbly with the occurrence of blocks up to ~1 m in size and a complete lack of layering. A HiRISE elevation model shows the local slope is of 0.2° toward South, and thus contrary to the apparent network organization (assuming tributary flows). There is no indication of exhumation of these ridges from layers below the current plains surface. Our observations are not consistent with the interpretation of digitate landforms such as inverted channels: (i) The rubbly texture lacking any layering at meter scale is distinct from inverted channels as observed elsewhere on Mars. (ii) Heads of presumed inverted channels display a lobate shape unlike river springs. (iii) There is no increase in width from small branches toward North as expected for channels with increasing discharge rates downstream. (iv) The slope toward South is contrary to the inferred flow direction to the North. The detailed analysis of these branched ridges shows many characteristics difficult to reconcile with inverted channels formed by fluvial channels flowing northward. Subglacial drainages are known to locally flow against topography, but they are rarely dendritic.<strong> </strong>Assuming that deposition occurred along the current slope, thus from North to South, the organization of the network requires a control by distributary channels rather than tributary ones. Distributary channels are possible for fluvial flows, but generally limited to braiding regimes or deltaic deposits, of which no further evidence is observed here. The lobate digitate shapes of the degree 1 branches are actually more in line with deposits of viscous flows, thus as terminal branches. Such an interpretation is consistent with lava or mudflows that formed along the current topography. The next step in this study will be to determine more precisely the rheology of these unusual flows.</p><p><strong>Acknowledgments:</strong> French authors are supported by the CNES. The authors wish to thank the spacecraft and instrument engineering teams. CaSSIS is a project of the University of Bern and funded through the Swiss Space Office via ESA’s PRODEX. The instrument hardware development was also supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) (agreement no. I/018/12/0), INAF/Astronomical Observatory of Padova, and the Space Research Center (CBK) in Warsaw. Support from SGF (Budapest), the Univ. of Arizona (Lunar and Planet. Lab.) and NASA are gratefully acknowledged.</p>

scholarly journals Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)

2007 ◽  
Vol 112 (E5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred S. McEwen ◽  
Eric M. Eliason ◽  
James W. Bergstrom ◽  
Nathan T. Bridges ◽  
Candice J. Hansen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
High Resolution Imaging ◽  
Imaging Science ◽  
Resolution Imaging

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) during MRO’s Primary Science Phase (PSP)

Icarus ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 205 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred S. McEwen ◽  
Maria E. Banks ◽  
Nicole Baugh ◽  
Kris Becker ◽  
Aaron Boyd ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Primary Science ◽  
High Resolution Imaging ◽  
Imaging Science ◽  
Resolution Imaging

scholarly journals FURTHER ADVENTURES IN MARS DTM QUALITY: SMOOTHING ERRORS, SHARPENING DETAILS

2021 ◽  
Vol XLIII-B3-2021 ◽  
pp. 659-666
Author(s):  
R. L. Kirk ◽  
D. Mayer ◽  
B. L. Redding ◽  
D. M. Galuszka ◽  
R. L. Fergason ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
Error Performance ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Digital Terrain ◽  
Terrain Models ◽  
Landing Sites ◽  
Imaging Science ◽  
Resolution Imaging ◽  
Slope Estimation

Abstract. We have used high-precision, high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory and Mars 2020 rover landing sites based on mosaicked images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (MRO HiRISE) camera as a reference data set to evaluate DTMs based on Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (MEX HRSC) images. The Next Generation Automatic Terrain Extraction (NGATE) matcher in the SOCET SET/GXP® commercial photogram- metric system produces DTMs with relatively good (small) horizontal resolution but high error, and results are terrain dependent, with poorer resolution and smaller errors on smoother surfaces. Multiple approaches to smoothing the NGATE DTMs give very similar tradeoffs between resolution and error. Smoothing the NGATE DTMs with a 5x5 lowpass filter is near optimal in terms of both combined resolution-error performance and local slope estimation, but smoothing with a single pass of an area-based matcher, which has been the standard approach for generating planetary DTMs at the U.S. Geological Survey to date results in similar errors and only slightly worse resolution. DTMs from the HRSC team processing pipeline fall within this same trade space but are less sensitive to terrain roughness. DTMs produced with the Ames Stereo Pipeline also fall in this space at resolutions intermediate between NGATE and the team pipeline. Although DTM resolution and error each vary by a factor of 2, the product of resolution and error is much more consistent, varying by ≤20% across multiple image sets and matching algorithms. Refinement of the stereo DTM by photoclinometry can yield significant quantitative improvement in resolution and some improvement in error (improving their product by as much as a factor of 2), provided that albedo variations over distances smaller than the stereo DTM resolution are not too severe.

Development of a simulator of the SIMBIOSYS suite onboard the BepiColombo mission

2019 ◽  
Vol 491 (2) ◽  
pp. 1673-1689 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Slemer ◽  
M Zusi ◽  
E Simioni ◽  
V Da Deppo ◽  
C Re ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Response Prediction ◽  
Spectral Radiance ◽  
Optical Channels ◽  
Planet Surface ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Exact Position ◽  
Resolution Imaging ◽  
Global Tectonics

ABSTRACT BepiColombo is the fifth cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) dedicated to study the Mercury planet. The BepiColombo spacecraft comprises two science modules: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) realized by ESA and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The MPO is composed by 11 instruments, including the ‘Spectrometer and Imagers for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory System’ (SIMBIOSYS). The SIMBIOSYS suite includes three optical channels: a Stereoscopic Imaging Channel, a High Resolution Imaging Channel, and a Visible and near Infrared Hyperspectral Imager. SIMBIOSYS will characterize the hermean surface in terms of surface morphology, volcanism, global tectonics, and chemical composition. The aim of this work is to describe a tool for the radiometric response prediction of the three SIMBIOSYS channels. Given the spectral properties of the surface, the instrument characteristics, and the geometrical conditions of the observation, the realized SIMBIOSYS simulator is capable of estimating the expected signal and integration times for the entire mission lifetime. In the simulator the spectral radiance entering the instrument optical apertures has been modelled using a Hapke reflectance model implementing the parameters expected for the hermean surface. The instrument performances are simulated by means of calibrated optical and detectors responses. The simulator employs the SPICE (Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, C-matrix, Environment) toolkit software, which allows us to know for each epoch the exact position of the MPO with respect to the planet surface and the Sun.

Assessing the RST_VOLC algorithm implementation on infrared Sentinel 3 SLSTR data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Falconieri ◽  
Francesco Marchese ◽  
Giuseppe Mazzeo ◽  
Nicola Pergola ◽  
Valerio Tramutoli
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Mt Etna ◽  
Multi Temporal ◽  
Moderate Resolution ◽  
Resolution Imaging ◽  
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Algorithm Implementation

<p>RSTVOLC is a multi-temporal algorithm developed for detecting volcanic hotspots that was successfully used to monitor active volcanoes located in different geographic areas exploiting both polar and geostationary satellite data. The algorithm runs operationally at the Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis (IMAA) to monitor Italian volcanoes in near-real time by means of Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. In this study, we assess the possible RSTVOLC implementation on data from the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR). The latter is a new generation sensor flying onboard the ESA (European Space Agency) Sentinel-3 mission, offering some spectral channels in the infrared bands particularly suited to identify high temperature surfaces such as lava flows. Here, we verify the RSTVOLC implementation on SLSTR data despite the absence of a multiannual time series of satellite records, by using synthetic spectral reference fields. Results achieved by investigating recent eruptions of Mt. Etna and Stromboli (Italy) volcanoes are presented and discussed.</p>

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