Hubble Snaps Mars

Rabenwolf writes: "Since we are closing in on Mars, Hubble is able to get better and better pictures of the planet, the newest one with a resolution of 10 miles! There is a story on CNN.com as well."

With that kind of resolution...

[Avinoam]

...you can easily spot the little green men running around.

Seriously, is this significant?
So one day in the future I'll be coming back from a martian vacation and when I get back home I'll be able to hook up to hubble and check out where I dropped my tuna sandwich.

We missed it.

[azephrahel]

<rant>
Damn. This means we missed it. Being that Mars is closer to earth this summer than it has been since the Roman empire existed, and in a 3(is that right? I thought it was something like that.) years it will loop around to be even closer than that. Did we just miss the perfect oprotunity for a manned mission to Mars? I think we did. And its not like were going to get another chance at it in a few years either. Two close contacts with Mars in under 5 years, and were to busy underfunding NASA to take full advantage of it.
</rant>

No, not yet

[boarder]

Just because it is closer now than ever doesn't mean it is easier to get to. Because of orbital mechanics and propulsion technologies, it is actually much cheaper and more feasible to do a mission that meets up with Mars on the other side of the sun (conjunction) than when it is on the same side (opposition). Not only do the cost and ease of mission make the conjunction class trajectories better, but opposition class trajectories only allow for VERY short stays on Mars (~30 days compared to ~500 days). This close approach is Mars in opposition.

In about 12-13 years (July-ish 2014), Mars will be in PERFECT position for a conjunction class trajectory that even allows for a "free-return" to Earth. This is what Apollo 13 did when it didn't have the fuel to return to Earth; they used a non-propulsive gravity assist around the moon to return (hence "free" because no fuel was used). We could send a manned mission to Mars and if, when we get to Mars, our in-situ plant hasn't made the required fuel or something went wrong with the ship in transit, we could just stay on the same trajectory and return right back to Earth. We should've been designing and sending the mission for then, but funding and politics prevent it now... it's just too late to make that date. The next free return isn't for another 32 AFTER then (2046) and I'll be too old to be the first man on Mars.

What about the probes photos?

[pdiaz]

Shouldn't the probes sent to mars have better resolution and more detailed photos?

Re:What about the probes photos?

[StaticLimit]

And they do. This is just the best shot from Earth or near-Earth.

I'd imagine the best shots we have are composite images from probes. So I suppose the most amazing this about this is...

Hubble rulez! Hubble rulez! Go Go Gadget Hubble-Space-Telescope! Woo-Hoo :)

I wonder if this image meets Taco's requirement of being a good desktop background image?

-StaticLimit

Eeeeediots!

[houTTni]

Checkout their massive 300dpi [stsci.edu] image. I wonder if Mars is really pixelated?


"Press any key to begin."

Re:With that kind of resolution...

[gd23ka]

Where do you get a ten mile long tuna sandwich?