Mars Express Alive again

[MeteorWayne]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 ... eimos.html

The Martian moons Phobos and Deimos have been photographed in the same frame for the first time.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter snapped a series of images of the two diminutive moons on Nov. 5 and released the pictures today.

The images will help researchers refine models of the two moons' orbits, but mostly they're just cool results of a year-long effort to get the timing right


Phobos was 7,332 miles (11,800 km) from Mars Express when the images were taken. Deimos was 16,280 miles (26,200 km) away.

 

[3488]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

Cheers Wayne very much I just LOVE this, you just knew I had to respond. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Mars Express movie of Phobos / Deimos conjunction.

Below my crop & sharpened enlargement.

Andrew Brown.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

I knew I'd wake your tail up for this, Andrew... :lol:

 

[3488]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

You sure did Wayne. :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

Later on when I'm back, I will e-mail ESA to see if they can send me or direct me to the still frames of the movie above. If they oblige I will work on a few of them & post them here.

It's a fantastic observation.

At the time Phobos 11,800 KM from Mars Express & is shown at 110 metre resolution. Deimos was 26,200 KM from Mars Express & is shown at at resolution of 240 metres.

On Phobos the bottom 'straight' edge is the rim of Stickney Crater.

Below a crop, enalrged sharpened screen dump view of Deimos & Phobos at closest conjunction. Deimos is partially obscured by Phobos.

Another enlarged sharpened crop of a screen dump of post closest conjunction, Deimos on the right.

I still say a close pass of Deimos should be carried out by Mars Express.

Andrew Brown.

 

[bdewoody]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

Some over where the story was posted questioned what the big deal was. Almost every picture from earth shows the two moons in the same frame.(Their quote not mine) To me the significance is the ability to do the math and get the orbiter positioned to take the shot. No significance in the actual pictures.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

From earth, the Martian Moons are dots, a few pixels wide. I've never seen a really good one taken from here.
they are only ~ 22 and 13 km in diameter; there are bigger craters and volcanos on the surface we can't discern.

 

[aphh]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

One of these days not in the extremely distant future Phobos is going to give Mars a smack the planet won't forget in a long time.

If I was a dinosaur roaming on planet mars, I would be very worried about the future developments.

 

[3488]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

Hi Aphh,

Yes Phobos is expected to impact Mars in approx 55 - 60 million years time. Considering how old Phobos is already, Phobos is literally in it's final 'days'.

Andrew Brown.

 

[aphh]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

Could we use these moons to aid terraforming mars? If we altered the trajectory slightly and smacked these moons down on mars, could we release the H20 and CO2 that is locked in the icy crust of Mars and thicken the athmosphere significantly?

I know it's a question better suited for Unexplained, but speaking theoretically, would a big impact thicken the athmosphere on mars?

 

[3488]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

Actually it's a very sensible thought, not for The Unexplained.

In theory yes, the atmosphere will temporarily thicken, but the reasons behind why Mars is as it is will not change, so any atmospheric thickening will be only very temporary.

This is why I am not convinced about terraforming Mars. It will revert back to it's natural state.

Andrew Brown.

 

[aphh]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

I know you're right, it wouldn't make much good to take these moons down. Put it would be a task within our reach; a few strategically placed ion engines pushing to the opposite direction of their path would accelerate the orbital decay a lot.

We could probably take these moons down, if needed for whatever reason. As mentioned, it probably wouldn't do much good, so let their orbits decay naturally.

 

[bdewoody]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

Actually it's a very sensible thought, not for The Unexplained.

In theory yes, the atmosphere will temporarily thicken, but the reasons behind why Mars is as it is will not change, so any atmospheric thickening will be only very temporary.

This is why I am not convinced about terraforming Mars. It will revert back to it's natural state.

Andrew Brown.

Even though this is driving this thread more off topic I've got to ask this. When you state that the atmospheric thickening either by these moons colliding with Mars or human intervention is temporary please define temporary. Temporary as in 50-100 yrs. or temporary as in 1,000 to 10,000 yrs.? If the latter it would still be useful if the former maybe not so much.

 

[aphh]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

It is impossible to give any figure without tedious calculations. But the three mile wide rock that hit Yukatan here 60 million years ago had an impact on the athmosphere that supposedly lasted for a thousand years.

We might be easily talking about tens of thousands of years. The amount of gasses released from a vast impact like Phobos hitting Mars would be significant.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMDUGSJR4G_index_0.html

Auspicious orbit marks run-up to Phobos flyby


29 January 2010
On 26 January, Mars Express completed its 7777th orbit around the Red Planet, an auspicious milestone as the satellite is readied for the closest-ever flyby of Phobos, scheduled for just a few weeks from now.

....

Mars Express, on 3 March, to conduct the closest flyby and examination of Phobos, Mars’ largest moon. The flyby, at a planned altitude of just 50 km, will collect very precise radio Doppler data to help determine the moon’s gravity field more accurately than ever.



Mars Express imaged the martian moons Phobos and Deimos together on 5 November 2009
This close flyby will be bracketed by similarly close passages, which will be used for other scientific investigations including radar sounding and imaging.
Knowing the gravity field will help scientists to understand the distribution of mass inside the moon, which is another step in the quest to discover the origin of Phobos.

None of the other spacecraft now orbiting Mars can fly as close to Phobos. While Mars is the mission’s primary target, this flyby is an excellent opportunity for additional scientific investigation of the Mars system, and will boost overall science return.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

Couple of days from fly-by, ESA page for kids about it :
Mars Express and the mystery of Phobos


and another link for grown-ups :
Mars Express heading for closest flyby of Phobos

1 March 2010
ESA’s Mars Express will skim the surface of Mars’ largest moon Phobos on Wednesday evening. Passing by at an altitude of 67 km, precise radio tracking will allow researchers to peer inside the mysterious moon.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

We're ALL kids when it comes to stuff like this

 

[3488]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

We're ALL kids when it comes to stuff like this

We certainly are Wayne.

The first high resolution imagery will be possible on: Sunday 7th March 2010, as the earlier encounters took place over the night side of Phobos, where the MARSIS radar was used to probe the interior of the suspected captured Type D asteroid moon.

Fascinating stuff for sure. :mrgreen:

Andrew Brown.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

We're ALL kids when it comes to stuff like this

We certainly are Wayne.

The first high resolution imagery will be possible on: Sunday 7th March 2010, as the earlier encounters took place over the night side of Phobos, where the MARSIS radar was used to probe the interior of the suspected captured Type D asteroid moon.

Fascinating stuff for sure. :mrgreen:

Andrew Brown.

I thought it would be appropriate I browsed around a bit, and you can get lost for quite a while.

Another kids stuff, i thought to copy from my calculator
Phobos mass, as calculated after the last pass :
1.072 * 10^16 kg = 1.072 * 10 000 000 000 000 000 kg = 1.072 * 10 000 000 000 000 t
10^16 = 10 000 000 000 000 000
Phobos
1.072 * 10^16 = 1.072 * 10 000 000 000 000 t = 1.072 * 10 000 000 Mt

World coal production from the World coal institute :
Over 5845 million tonnes (Mt)
or 5.845 * 1 000 Mt

To make life a little simpler, i use Tt (Tera - (symbol: T) is a prefix in the metric system denoting 10^12 or 1 000 000 000 000 ).
Earth mass :
5.9736 * 10^24 kg = 5.9736 * 10^21 t = 5.9736 * 10^15 Mt = 5.9736 * 10^9 Tt = 5.9736 * 1 000 000 000 Tt
Phobos
1.072 * 10 000 000 Mt = 1.072 * 10 Tt
World coal production
5.845 * 1 000 Mt = 5.845 * 0.001 Tt

Here are numbers for the international shipping tonnage, from United Nations Atlas of the Oceans , above 500 000 000 t, = 500 Mt = 500 * 0.001 Tt


This gives a better picture, i think ( did i s***kheeump ... any zero counting ? ) (edit, of course, but i think i fixed it, or did i :roll: )

Ok, now what i really want to see, is a 3d animation of it's internal structure, but that will have to wait a bit, i'm afraid, but at least now it has better options, and in the mean time, pictures will do just fine, :mrgreen:

edit, just noticed, Mars express blog :


Current flyby prediction for 3 March

In an email earlier today, ESA's Flight Dynamics team here at ESOC provided their latest Mars Express orbit prediction for tomorrow's Phobos flyby.

It is based on ground station tracking data received up until yesterday, and includes data from the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) station at Goldstone, California, and from ESA's own Deep Space Antenna (DSA) station at New Norcia. The predicted closest approach time to Phobos remains unchanged at 20:55:40 UTC (21:55:40 CET) on 3 March 2010, with a miss distance of 77 km from the centre of Phobos. This implies that Mars Express will pass 67 km above the surface of Phobos (which has an average radius of 11.1 km).

The prediction also confirms that there will be no occultation by Phobos on 3 March, meaning that Mars Express will not pass 'behind' Phobos as seen from the Earth. There will be a very brief eclipse caused by Phobos passing in front of the Sun (as seen from Mars Express) - in other words, Mars Express will enter the shadow cast by Phobos. Thanks to Frank Budnik for the details! -- Daniel

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

From Mars Express Blog :

Graphics of flyby :

03 March, 2010 22:41

A response from a happy scientist

Martin Paetzold, Principle Investigator of the Mars Radio Science observation is smiling. This morning, before the flyby, he admits to having been very anxious about the coming flyby. “There was a very small probability of an occultation at closest approach,” he says. It was a very small possibility but if it happened, Phobos would have blocked the signal with Earth at the critical moment.

There is nothing to anxious about any more. Closest approach took place at 20:55 CET. It took 6 minutes and 34 seconds for signals to cross the volume of space between Phobos and Earth, and be received on Earth.

It would have created a gap in the data of five to ten minutes, whilst the signal link was re-established with the spacecraft. “We would have had to extrapolate between the two data sets and that would not have been good. Now we have continuous data,” says Paetzold.

The team will receive the data on Friday, and they will begin the full analysis once they receive the precise orbit determination of Mars Express on its way into the flyby. They hope to assess the data and the preliminary results in about two weeks time.

Let the analysis begin! -- Stuart

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

ESA article about the flyby with some more details about plans and info about Phobos :
Phobos Flyby Success

4 March 2010
Mars Express encountered Phobos last night, smoothly skimming past at just 67 km, the closest any manmade object has ever approached Mars’ enigmatic moon. The data collected could help unlock the origin of not just Phobos but other ‘second generation’ moons.

...

Last night’s flyby was just one of a campaign of 12 Mars Express flybys taking place in February and March 2010. For the previous two, the radar was working, attempting to probe beneath the surface of the moon, looking for reflections from structures inside. In the coming flybys, the Mars Express camera will take over, providing high resolution pictures of the moon’s surface.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Mars Express Alive again with photos of both Martian Moons

from Mars Express Blog :
Preliminary radio science results just in

09 March, 2010 15:15

Just had the following message through from Mars Express Project Scientist Olivier Witasse. -- Stuart

“The Mars Express Radio-Science team, led by Martin Pätzold (Cologne University), has performed a preliminary analysis of the radiometric data recorded during the evening of closest approach, 3 March 2010.

Credit: ESA/ Department of Planetary Research at the University of Cologne (M. Pätzold).

The grey line in the image shows the frequency change due to Phobos during a 20-minute window, centred on the closest approach. Before closest approach, the effect of Phobos on the spacecraft is negligible. Then there is a clear jump in frequency at closest approach. This is Phobos slightly changing the orbit of Mars Express.

The blue line is the expected frequency change assuming the mass of Phobos, as measured during a previous flyby, is evenly distributed throughout the moon’s interior. There are clearly small differences between the blue and grey lines. The challenge now for the Radio-Science team is to dig into these small differences to prise out information on the mass distribution. “The real work starts right here,” says Pätzold.

Thread in Space Science and Astronomy dealing with details of the flyby :
Mars Express Phobos Flyby March 3 2010

 

[EarthlingX]

http://www.universetoday.com : Mars Webcam Provides Astronaut-like View of Red Planet

June 2nd, 2010

Written by Nancy Atkinson

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtNWqKKg8gI[/youtube]

What would it be like to approach Mars in a spacecraft? In one of the coolest movies ever, we now know! Using the the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board Mars Express, science teams put together 600 individual still images to create a movie of descending towards and then moving away from Mars. It shows the spacecraft's slow descent from high above the planet, speeding up as closest approach is passed and then slowing down again as the distance increases.

Towards the start of the video, the giant Martian volcanoes can be seen followed by the beginning of the ice coverage around the South Pole as the spacecraft crosses over to the night side of the planet. Shortly after emerging back onto the day side of the planet, the beautiful North Pole can be observed, followed by the long climb away from the planet over the equator. Finally, at the end of the movie, the disk of Phobos can be seen crossing from top to bottom of the image.

Amazing! Enjoy.

Source: ESA

(long article, couple of videos)
http://www.esa.int : Astronaut's eye view: Mars Express orbiting the Red Planet

2 June 2010

This video shows what future astronauts would see from their cockpit: Mars turning below as they sweep around the Red Planet. Last month, ESA's Mars Express snapped images every minute to create a unique video that loops through a complete orbit of Earth's gorgeous neighbour.

Mars holds a special fascination for humans. Its relative proximity and its solid surface make it a tantalising target for exploration. Thanks to this new video from Mars Express, we can now imagine what it will be like to orbit the Red Planet some day, possibly searching for a place to land.

Last month, mission controllers commanded the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) to acquire an image of Mars every minute during one complete, 7-hour orbit. The VMC is a low-resolution, non-scientific digital camera originally used only to confirm separation of the Mars Express lander in 2003.

The resulting still images have been combined to create a unique video as Mars Express loops between its greatest height above the surface, 10 527 km, to its lowest, at just 358 km, and back again. This is the first such video ever generated from a spacecraft orbiting Mars.

webservices.esa.int : VMC - the Mars Webcam dedicated website.

02 June, 2010 17:06

VMC video - submission by Hannes Griebel



Hannes Griebel, Mars Express operations and mission planning engineer, has sent us his own versions of the VMC video, which he's reworked into several formats. Thanks, Hannes! And remember: we'd be delighted to receive similar efforts from anyone who would like to try their hand at generating a video (or any other production) from the raw image set of 27 May (here and here). Artistic, scientific, interpretative, whatever: take a look and give it a try. We'll republish the best submissions right here in the blog.

 

[nimbus]

Beautiful. The exact post is here
http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/6/1186

 

[EarthlingX]

ESA Mars Webcam has a Tweeter account :

http://twitter.com/esamarswebcam

#vmc images direct from Mars: 62 new images acquired 18.06 now autoposted by the #marswebcam

webservices.esa.int : New Images From 18 June 2010 Added

New images have been posted to the image database. These images are from the VMC observation on 18 June 2010, for more details on this observation hit the "Full Story" link below. To access the images click the link below. Also you can access the Celestia file to see where the images were captured and access the raw data in the zip file (for more details see Help us with the VMC)

Image Capture at Mars: 18/06/2010 13:18 - 18/06/2010 14:03
Image Arrival on Earth & Post to Blog: 25/06/2010 09:12

 

[EarthlingX]

http://www.dlr.de : Seven years of Mars Express – unusual structures at Magellan Crater

28 June 2010


View from southwest to northeast across the region at the northern edge of Magellan Crater

In the southwest of the Tharsis volcanic region on Mars is the large impact crater Magellan, named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521). The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), carried by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter and operated by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), acquired images of unusual structures on the southern edge of the crater. The process by which these structures developed is not fully understood.