Mars Express 3D Image Released

zoney_ie writes "As reported in BBC News Online, ESA (European Space Agency) have released an image of the surface of Mars, captured in 3D and full colour. Europe's Mars Express orbiter has been taking pictures of the Martian surface at down to 10m resolution. The mission will result in Mars being more carefully mapped than Earth has been to date! Full size image available on ESA's Mars Express Website."

Certainly the earth has been better mapped

[HMA2000]

I am pretty sure that many top secret government organizations have mapped the earth at a better resolution than 10 meters.

Or did you think the US bombed the chinense embassy on accident?

So, any chance they'll release a complete map...

[Anonymous Coward]

a la NASA's "Blue Marble" images for Earth?

That's one thing NASA has over ESA - they release a lot more material into the public domain... and this time I'm actually paying for it with my tax Euros, so I say they should release the images to us all :)

Re:New game for Europeans:

[RetroGeek]

I'm pretty sure that the beagle was smaller than that

But not the crater! Depending on the terminal velocity it could be larger than 30 feet (imperial conversion done for the metrically challenged).

Will the full archive be available?

[ZPO]

If the full georegistered archive is made available I'll be pleased. Otherwise it will be just another data-source for ESA to make money off of.

Given all the taxes paid citizens of the ESA member nations it had sure better be made publicly available.

In perspective...

[Gorimek]

So in little longer than Spirit has moved about 4 steps, Express has mapped the entire planet? Not bad...

As for the "better than earth" maps, I think they include the 70% of our planet that is under water.

Re:Earth to date?

[zeux]

There's no need to map earth at 1 foot resolution near real time. It's just so much data that you wouldn't have the time to analyse it until it gets outdated (continental drift, erosion, etc).

Instead they do have 1 foot resolution but they use it only on certains parts of the world and only when they need it, Iraq for instance.

10 meters is good from orbit

[tjstork]

But wow, look at what's going on on the ground. The new rover images are really remarkable.

I feel bad for the Europeans and the loss of the Beagle. Hopefully this won't dissuade European policy makers from continuing to explore the stars, and honestly, a friendly rivalry will help the space programs on all continents.

It seems better to have nations compete to build spacecraft to expore the heavens with than it is to have them compete to build more armies with.

Bush's big idea

[fiannaFailMan]

These successful missions may end up becoming fewer and further between in future, thanks to you-know-who.

CNN has an article [cnn.com] about Bush's sudden fascination with the space program and it points out how he never once visited the NASA facilities in Houston while he was governor there. Also the convenient timing of his announcement that just happens to coincide with the Democrat front-runners ganging up on Howard Dean is mentioned.

One of the first casualties of the cuts that are necessary to make Bush's 'vision' a reality has been the Hubble, as reported in New Scientist [newscientist.com].

See also some concise reporting [economist.com] from the Economist that takes a cold, unemotional look at the question of whether or not we actually need manned spaceflight at all. From that article:

[H]is grand announcement this week may not, in the end, amount to anything more than starry-eyed campaign rhetoric. Of course, only an incorrigible cynic could possibly conclude that Mr Bush knows this perfectly well--and intends simply to let the whole thing fade away after it has helped him get re-elected.

Excuse me for sounding like an 'incorrigible cynic,' but the guy doesn't exactly have a good record with telling the truth.

I digress.

That paper has long held an anti-manned-spaceflight view, which I would say is a bit short-sighted in view of the vulnerability of Earth to catastrophic bombardments from above.

Re:Best mapping of Earth with *same* instrument ?

[advocate_one]

"Even with the best instruments and the most careful technicians and scientists, systematic errors between instruments, methods and setups exist. When it comes to consistency, a single instrument in a single setup beats anything else.
"

And when it comes to consistency... a single instrument can make the most monumentally consistent error... it helps to have other instruments and methods to compare against here...