Mars Orbiter Photographs another Mars Orbiter

rde writes "We're all familiar with blurry photographs of UFOs, but NASA have gone one better; the Mars Global Surveyor has photographed fellow satellite Mars Odyssey as it whizzed past. This is the first instance of one extraterrestrial satellite photographing another."

Comments

Some Camera

[wakejagr]

The Mars Orbiter Camera can resolve features on the surface of Mars as small as a few meters or yards across from Mars Global Surveyor's orbital altitude of 350 to 405 kilometers (217 to 252 miles). From a distance of 100 kilometers (62 miles), the camera would be able to resolve features substantially smaller than 1 meter or yard across.

My understanding of optics isn't too good. Isn't this the kind of thing where you trade amazing resolution for something else? Does this camera require massive amounts of light? Would it work when photographing something not directly reflecing the light of the sun, such as on the night side of Mars?

Voyager

[apache guevara]

This is infact tougher than it seems. Both satellites are on a polar orbit and at different speeds. And the camera on the MGS rotates as it takes pictures over this. Pretty awesome for the sheer mathematical probabilites involved

For sheer probabilites, imagine the Voyager out there in the beyond. It would be nothing short of a miracle to be spotted by a satellite from another planet.

Unless of course it bumps into the dear old gluttonous friend of ours from Trall!!

First time?

[Groote Ka]

What about the Apollo 12 crew that managed to land the eagle at walking distance from the Surveyor II probe?

OK, a purist may say that the moon lander does not qualify as a satellite, but I beg to differ here.