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10-Oct-2007 NASA Orbiter Provides Color Views of Mars Landing Site Candidates Full Press Release     View Related Video Color Image of Layers in Holden Crater, a Candidate MSL Landing Site Layers inside Holden Crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars are shown in enhanced color in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image was taken on December 4, 2006, as part of a campaign to examine more than two dozen candidate landing sites for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, which is scheduled for launch in 2009. Holden is one of the most interesting locations for scientists investigating the history of water on Mars because the crater contains deep gullies carved by running water, as well as excellent examples of likely lake beds and alluvial fans (sediment deposited by streams) on its floor. These deposits are about 3.7 billion years old and date back to a wetter period of early Martian history. Since that time the planet has generally been very cold and dry, and water has remained frozen in the polar regions or middle latitudes. The cliff shown in this frame is located on the southwestern part of the crater floor. Many of the bright, flat-lying, possible lake-bed deposits near the bottom of the cliff are each less than a meter or yard thick. After these lake beds were deposited, a massive flood entered Holden Crater from the southwest and deposited the layer of dark boulders and gravel that are now exposed near the top of the cliff. After the lake dried up, wind eroded the surface and formed the ripples and dunes seen in the valley. The circular pits are impact craters formed by meteorite strikes onto the ancient deposits. The area covered by this image is about 600 meters (about one-third of a mile) across, at 26.8 degrees south latitude, 34.7 degrees west longitude. North is up. The view is a composite of exposures that HiRISE took in the infrared, red and blue portions of the spectrum. Color is enhanced, a technique useful for analyzing landscapes. This is a portion of the full-frame color image catalogued as PSP_001666_1530 in the HiRISE collection. It was taken at a local Mars time of 3:41 p.m. The scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 68 degrees, thus the sun was about 22 degrees above the horizon. The season on Mars was northern autumn. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona Browse Image | Medium Image (349 kB) | Large (4.5 MB) Full-Res (NASA's Planetary Photojournal) Color Image of Nili Fossae Trough, a Candidate MSL Landing Site A portion of a trough in the Nili Fossae region of Mars is shown in enhanced color in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image was taken on March 24, 2007, as part of a campaign to examine more than two dozen candidate landing sites for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, which is scheduled for launch in 2009. The Nili Fossae region has one of the largest exposures of clay minerals discovered by the mapping spectrometer (called OMEGA for its French name's acronym) on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. These minerals have also been mapped in greater detail by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This image covers an area nearly one kilometer (six-tenths of a mile) wide, at 21.1 degrees north latitude, 74.2 degrees east longitude. North is up. It is a composite of exposures that HiRISE took in the infrared, red and blue portions of the spectrum. Color is enhanced beyond the standard enhancement in HiRISE color images, as this view is excerpted from a special video treatment of the full-frame image. The purple areas are basaltic in composition, including sand-sized material that bounces around in the wind to form dunes. Basalt in the most common type of volcanic rock on the Earth and other terrestrial planets. Orange areas are rich in clays. Clay minerals contain water in their mineral structure and may also preserve organic materials, so there is great interest in studying these deposits to understand past environments that could have supported life. The blue-green patches are outcops of unaltered rocks rich in the mineral pyroxene. This is a portion of the full-frame color image catalogued as PSP_003086_2015 in the HiRISE collection. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:38 p.m. The scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 62 degrees, thus the sun was about 28 degrees above the horizon. The season on Mars was northern autumn. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona Browse Image | Medium Image (134 kB) | Large (753 kB) Full-Res (NASA's Planetary Photojournal) Rocky Mesas of Nilosyrtis Mensae Region, in Color Mesas in the Nilosyrtis Mensae region of Mars appear in enhanced color in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image was taken on April 5, 2007, as part of a campaign to examine more than two dozen candidate landing sites for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, which is scheduled for launch in 2009. This image shows a region of science interest to which the Mars Science Laboratory rover might drive. It would need to first land in a nearby area that is flatter and less rocky. Clay minerals have been detected in this region by imaging spectrometers on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These minerals are of great interest in the search for evidence of life on ancient Mars. Someday the capability may exist for precision landing and hazard avoidance, so a rover could be set down right next to such rugged outcrops of interest for study and perhaps for collection of rock samples for return to Earth. The area covered by this image is about one kilometer (six-tenths of a mile) across, at 29.3 degrees north latitude, 73.3 degrees east longitude. North is up. The view is a composite of exposures that HiRISE took in the infrared, red and blue portions of the spectrum. Color is enhanced, a technique useful for analyzing landscapes. This is a portion of the full-frame color image catalogued as PSP_003231_2095 in the HiRISE collection. It was taken at a local Mars time of 3:28 p.m. The scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 66 degrees, thus the sun was about 24 degrees above the horizon. The season on Mars was northern autumn. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona Browse Image | Medium Image (178 kB) | Large (2.3 MB) Full-Res (NASA's Planetary Photojournal)

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