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Countdown Nears: Final Tests

Countdown Nears: Final Tests

July 14, 2009

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NASA

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This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Aram Chaos, an ancient impact crater that lies within in the Southern Highlands of Mars. Uplifted blocks are composed largely of the iron-ox...
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This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Aram Chaos, a 280-kilometer-wide impact crater in the Southern Highlands. Uplifted blocks of hematite and water-altered silicates indicate that this crater once held a lake.
Uplifted Blocks of Light-Toned Layered Deposits
This fresh crater is located in the northern mid-latitudes. It is designated as fresh because of its very sharp rim.
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This fresh crater is located in the northern mid-latitudes. It is designated as fresh because of its very sharp rim. The crater has experienced some modification since it formed, including a few tiny craters on the south wall. The rough texture of the floor is suggestive of ground ice, which is expected to exist in the mid-latitudes. Ground ice aids gravity in moving material from the crater walls towards the center. Material is visible slumping off the northwest crater wall in this fashion. The wavy texture of the center of the crater floor suggests that material has been transported from the walls and merged in the center.
Fresh Impact Crater in Utopia Planitia
Artist concept of glacier on Mars.
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Artist concept of glacier on Mars.
Artist concept of Glaciers on Mars
This image show a fan-shaped deposit where a channel enters a crater. This suggests that water once flowed through the channel into a crater lake, depositing material in a similar manner to river d...
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This image show a fan-shaped deposit where a channel enters a crater.
Fluvial Fan on a Crater Floor (3-D)
This pair of images taken one day apart by the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) weather camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals when an asteroid impact made the scar seen in the right-hand im...
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This pair of images taken one day apart by the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) weather camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals when an asteroid impact made the scar seen in the right-hand image. The left image was taken during Martian afternoon on March 27, 2012; the right one on the afternoon of March 28, 2012.
Best-Ever Pinning Down When a Space Rock Hit Mars
This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today.
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This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today.
Warm-Season Flows on Slope in Horowitz Crater (Nine-Image Sequence)
This large outflow channel shows many characteristic signs that massive amounts of water have flowed through this area, including the teardrop and streamlined islands.
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This large outflow channel shows many characteristic signs that massive amounts of water have flowed through this area, including the teardrop and streamlined islands.
Hebrus Valles (3-D)
Although the season is late spring, carbon dioxide ice still covers much of the surface at this high latitude site.
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Although the season is late spring, carbon dioxide ice still covers much of the surface at this high latitude site.
Icy Wonderland
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows many new ice blocks compared to earlier images in 2006. One of the most actively changing areas on Mars are the steep edges of the North Pol...
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Ice block avalanche. This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows many new ice blocks compared to earlier images in 2006.
Ice Block Avalanche
Back-and-forth blinking of this two-image animation shows movement of ripples covering a sand dune on Mars.
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Back-and-forth blinking of this two-image animation shows movement of ripples covering a sand dune on Mars.
Ripple Movement on Sand Dune in Nili Patera, Mars
Phobos in Stereo
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Phobos in Stereo
'Marsshine' on Shadowed Part of Phobos
The battered region of Arabia Terra is among the oldest terrain on Mars.
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The battered region of Arabia Terra is among the oldest terrain on Mars.
Arabia Dunes
Is frozen carbon dioxide a key to features in some Martian gullies? To find out, scientists grabbed a bag of dry ice and took a road trip.
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Dry Ice Moves on Mars
Dry Ice Moves on Mars
Two 2001 images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter show a dramatic change in the planet's appearance during a dust storm.
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two global mars views, one clear one hazy
Global Dust Storm
This color-enhanced view shows the terrain around the rover's landing site within Gale Crater on Mars.
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This color-enhanced view shows the terrain around the rover's landing site within Gale Crater on Mars.
A Whole New World for Curiosity
This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a sand dune field in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. The dark lines swirling over the surface of the dunes are the tracks of dust devi...
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This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a sand dune field in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. The dark lines swirling over the surface of the dunes are the tracks of dust devils.
Dust Devils on Mars
This image combines a photograph of seasonal dark flows on a Martian slope with a grid of colors based on data collected by a mineral-mapping spectrometer observing the same area.
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This image combines a photograph of seasonal dark flows on a Martian slope with a grid of colors based on data collected by a mineral-mapping spectrometer observing the same area.
Color-Coded Clues to Composition Superimposed on Martian Seasonal-Flow Image
These dunes may be active today, but we haven't yet observed them at significantly different times to measure the movement.
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These dunes may be active today, but we haven't yet observed them at significantly different times to measure the movement.
Dunes on Ridges (3-D)
The Coloe Fossae region is a series of enclosed, intersecting canyons. The floors of the canyons in this image contain complex set of ridges and grooves that are generally parallel to the canyon wa...
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The Coloe Fossae region is a series of enclosed, intersecting canyons.
Coloe Fossae Region (3-D)
This HiRISE image shows gullies on a south-facing slope of a crater touched with late-Spring carbon dioxide frost. At this time of year, only the south-facing slopes of craters retain their frost, ...
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This HiRISE image shows gullies on a south-facing slope of a crater touched with late-Spring carbon dioxide frost.
MRO sees Frosty Spring Slopes
Light-Toned Bedrock Along Cracks as Evidence of Fluid Alteration.
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The image was acquired during winter in Mars' southern hemisphere. It combines separate band passes taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment in blue-green light, red light and near-infrared light.
NASA Mars Orbiter Sees Effects of Ancient Underground Fluids
As the Sun peeks above the horizon at the Martian south polar icecap, powerful jets of carbon-dioxide (CO2) gas erupt through the icecap's topmost layer.
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As the Sun peeks above the horizon at the Martian south polar icecap, powerful jets of carbon-dioxide (CO2) gas erupt through the icecap's topmost layer.
Dry Ice Spiders on Mars
These collapse pits probably formed when lava erupted from the side of Arsia Mons, draining underground magma reservoirs. The resulting voids collapse due to the weight of the solid lava above them...
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These collapse pits probably formed when lava erupted from the side of Arsia Mons, draining underground magma reservoirs. The resulting voids collapse due to the weight of the solid lava above them.
Pits on Arsia Mons (3-D)
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been on the western rim of Endeavour Crater in Meridiani Planum for about two years. Until May 2013, it was investigating sedimentary layers that are ...
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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been on the western rim of Endeavour Crater in Meridiani Planum for about two years. Until May 2013, it was investigating sedimentary layers that are three to four billion years old on a portion of the rim called "Cape York."
Color View From Orbit Showing Opportunity in 'Botany Bay' (Annotated)
This animation demonstrates the salty ponds and streams that scientists think may have been left behind as Gale Crater dried out over time. The bottom of the image is the floor of Gale Crater, with...
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This animation demonstrates the salty ponds and streams that scientists think may have been left behind as Gale Crater dried out over time. The bottom of the image is the floor of Gale Crater, with the peak being the side of Mount Sharp.
Sutton Island Model of Drying Lakes

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