Face on Mars Gets a Make-Over

Alien54 writes "ESA's Mars Express has obtained images of the Cydonia region, site of the famous 'Face on Mars.' using the High Resolution Stereo Camera. After multiple attempts to image the Cydonia region from April 2004 until July 2006 were frustrated by altitude and atmospheric dust and haze, the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board Mars Express finally obtained, on 22 July, a series of images that show the famous 'face' on Mars in unprecedented detail, with a ground resolution of approximately 13.7 metres per pixel."

Comments

Primary Goal of the Mission

[eldavojohn]

Taking these pictures of the face was the primary goal of this mission. ESA was sick of listening to its citizens bitch about there being a 30 year "pictures of the face on Mars" gap (that's a rough translation from European).

But seriously, it is the first goal of the Mars Orbiter:

The Mars Express Orbiter will:

• image the entire surface at high resolution (10 metres/pixel) and selected areas at super resolution (2 metres/pixel);
• produce a map of the mineral composition of the surface at 100 metre resolution;
• map the composition of the atmosphere and determine its global circulation;
• determine the structure of the sub-surface to a depth of a few kilometres;
• determine the effect of the atmosphere on the surface;
• determine the interaction of the atmosphere with the solar wind.

The Beagle 2 lander was planned to:

• determine the geology and the mineral and chemical composition of the landing site;
• search for life signatures (exobiology);
• study the weather and climate.

I guess I would rather see something more than just regular images come from a mission. Right now, I can see all these things on the ESA's site that help the user see all these pictures of Mars but I don't see any maps of mineral composition, atmospheric movement, etc. I've seen pictures, these are some great high quality images with 3D detail that are great screensaver material. But, for the love of science, when do we get the rest of the data from the mission -- you know, the stuff that is, like, going to alter the way we view Mars? Is the public never going to see these results?

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Yvanhoe]

Uh? The "face on mars" only looks like a face on the 1976 Viking's photographs. There has been numerous pictures of this region at higher resolution ever since :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_on_mars

I remember the 1998 Mars Surveyor pictures. I wasn't surprise, but who can say honestly that he was not a bit disapointed ? ;-)

Re:Well Done

[LiquidCoooled]

Firstly, this is done by ESA (European Space Agency) and is not a NASA mission.

Secondly, its an orbiting space platform and has nothing to do with rovers (unless you mean the ill fated Beagle 2 which was carried on this mission).

But having corrected all that, you are right its a job well done.

Today's vocabulary word is "pareidolia"

[greg1104]

See http://www.skepdic.com/pareidol.html for a definition. A commentary on this particular image (along with some wicked cool visual illusions) is at http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/fcs_face_on_mars/inde x.html

Please excuse me, I have to return to searching my toast for the Virgin Mary now.