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Mars Express Sends Back First Photo of Mars

Posted by simoniker on from the red-eye-for-red-planet dept.

Andrew Browne writes "Today the European Space Agency received the first photo of Mars from its Mars Express probe. The photo was taken on December 1st and processed by the DLR Institute for Planetary Research and by the Freie Universitat Berlin. Mars Express was launched June 2nd of this year and is due to arrive at the Red planet later this month. The extremely speedy voyage is thanks to our close approach to Mars this summer. Other probes taking advantage of the launch window include NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers. You can track the progress of all the probes heading to Mars with NASA's solar system simulator."

4 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. Good chances to discover ET life in year 2004 by njchick · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The are good chances that the extraterrestrial life will be found in year 2004 if it exists in the Solar system. Mars will be inspected by three probes specifically designed to look for life. Also, Cassini will drop a probe on Titan, a moon of Saturn. It may not find bacteria, but if Titan is populated by macroscopic organisms, we'll know it in year 2004.

    We'll have better chances only when a probe penetrates the ice crust of Europa.

  2. Photo Types by fven · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As they imply they will show a new photo each day until Christmas (Advent Calendar of photos), I hope they will produce some false colour images from the OMEGA and SPICAM instruments.
    THe first two both look like images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), which do look cool but I would like to see some of the atmospheric and mineralogic data as maps.

  3. Wakeup call... by advocate_one · · Score: 3, Funny

    ahhh... so they've woken the onboard pixie up then... just wish she could hold the camera a little steadier...

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  4. Licensing by n.wegner · · Score: 4, Informative

    The ESA has some restrictive terms of use. No reproduction for a fee, educational or informational use only, etc., and that's only for a low-resolution thumbnail gallery.

    NASA typically rescinds copyright and puts its images in the public domain, so everyone can use them, plus they usually release the best resolutions they can get.

    http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMa rb le/
    http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/viewreco rd?58 26
    http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/

    The good thing about that is that people can make posters, etc. without worrying about trying to sell them at or above cost.

    http://www.cafeshops.com/redundant_blue