NASA Images Old Mars Landers 38
Iron Sun writes "Scientists have used the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter to capture images of what they think are the Viking 1 and Mars Pathfinder craft sitting on the surface of Mars. I'll have to take their word they are the indistinct blobs in question. The probes were supposedly just below the resolution of Surveyor, but they used a new trick developed last year to squeeze more detail out of the camera. The next target will, of course, be the Spirit rover."
"We can find it if we know where it is!" (Score:2, Informative)
"It would be extremely difficult to find a lander for which the location is uncertain"
So basically they are saying if they know exactly where the lander is, they can point to it on a picture of mars. The only real news is the picture has enough resolution you can see the dot that is the lander. Of course, if they are wrong, it might be that dot over there... or maybe that one... or...
That said, this is pretty damn cool. Hopefully the next mission will have even better resolution cameras, and we can get a better view.
Re:"We can find it if we know where it is!" (Score:3, Informative)
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter [nasa.gov] launching in 2005, arriving in 2006 will have a higher resolution camera called HiRISE [nasa.gov]. 1-2 meters/pixel.
In related space news... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:"We can find it if we know where it is!" (Score:3, Informative)
"Normally it can resolve features only down to about 3 feet (1 meter) per pixel, not good enough to discern a typical landing craft from its surroundings."
They got the additional resolution needed to see the landers by using a funkey trick, something about pitching the spacecraft at a faster speed... not very well explained in the article. But it gives a single-dimension resolution of ~20 inches/pixel.
The MSG actually only has a resolution of 1.5 meters/pixel, if the information here [nasa.gov] is correct. So The Mars Recon Orbiter camera [nasa.gov] will be a bit of an improvement, if they use the same resolution-enhancing trick. But it will only make the dot a little bigger... I doubt it will be able to confirm that the dot actually is a lander. Although, the HiRISE will have a 1-2 ft/pixel resolution at near-infrared. This could be be enough to almost make out something...
Re:When will we send higher-resolution cameras? (Score:4, Informative)