Mars Express Images of Olympus Mons 35

Posted by michael on Friday February 13, 2004 @04:41PM from the skycam dept.

tr0llb4rt0 writes "The New Scientist reports on high resolution images of Olympus Mons taken by the ESA's Mars Express probe. Earlier pictures had suffered due to problems syncronizing the images from the high resolution stereo camera but these latest images are of excellent quality and scientists expect the quality of future images to improve further. High resolution images are available at the ESA's Mars Express Multimedia Gallery."

Mars Express Images of Olympus Mons

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Lava Tubes!! (Score:3, Interesting)

by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @04:44PM (#8274310)

That'd be a great place to set up a base, wouldnt it?

- - Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:2, Interesting)
    
    by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) writes:
    
    and the launch site to go back home could be set up at the top... nearly 3 times as high as the Everest summit... less gravity to escape, less fuel to burn.
    - Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:1)
      
      by Some guy named Chris ( 9720 ) writes:
      
      Yeah, but at that height, there'd be no atmosphere.
      - Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:1)
        
        by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) writes:
        
        as opposed to a carbon dioxide atmosphere below?
        
        also, less atmosphere = less friction for the return vehicle.
        
        Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:3, Interesting)
        
        by Zathrus ( 232140 ) writes:
        
        also, less atmosphere = less friction for the return vehicle
        
        Which means you have to burn a lot more fuel in order to slow down and stop, since you can't use aerobraking or parachutes.
        
        Being out of the atmosphere means you also have absolutely no protection against micrometeorites. On the flipside, you don't have to deal with dust or dust storms.
        
        Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:3, Insightful)
        
        by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) writes:
        
        err slow down and stop? aerobraking? parachute?
        
        for the RETURN TO EARTH VEHICLE????
        
        plenty of atmosphere on Earth, last time I checked...
        
        Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:3, Interesting)
        
        by n.wegner ( 613340 ) writes:
        
        >Which means you have to burn a lot more fuel in order to slow down and stop, since you can't use aerobraking or parachutes.
        
        How much less is the martian gravity? Can you land near the base of the mountain, get the astronauts to bring pieces of the return vehicle up to the top, and then launch from there? It's a lot easier hauling your ass up a hill than hauling your ass up thin air.
        
        >Being out of the atmosphere means you also have absolutely no protection against micrometeorites.
        
        Your return vehicle
    - Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:5, Informative)
      
      by WayneConrad ( 312222 ) * writes: <.wconrad. .at. .yagni.com.> on Friday February 13, 2004 @06:50PM (#8275560) Homepage
      
      [Olympus Mons has] nearly 3 times as high as the Everest summit... less gravity to escape, less fuel to burn.
      The gravity at Olympus Mons is higher than average. Check out this gravity map of Mars [nasa.gov]. All of the black spots (the spots with the highest gravity) are volcanoes; the leftmost black spot on the left hemisphere is Olympus Mons.
      Gravity decreases as you get farther away from the surface, but when you're at the surface, it is the mass of the stuff under your feet that matters.
      
      - Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:2)
        
        by utahjazz ( 177190 ) writes:
        
        Launch sideways.
        
        Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:1)
        
        by Tango42 ( 662363 ) writes:
        
        If you could get enough speed (I would have to look up the laws to find out what speed), you would end up in an extremely low, and therefore unstable orbit, which would quickly degrade due to atmospheric friction (even at that altitude there would be enough), and you would crash. Not the most effective method of returning to Earth... (of course if you went even faster, you would reach escape velocity, but it would be much easier to go straight up, because you wouldn't need to keep the engines running so lo
- Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:2)
  
  by BrookHarty ( 9119 ) writes:
  
  That'd be a great place to set up a base, wouldnt it?
  
  I'm just wondering how much the insurance will be. Who wants lava spouting all over the place, sink holes because of caverns. Just as bad as people building in flood zones. (-;
  - Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:2, Informative)
    
    by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) writes:
    
    it's a dead volcano
    
    and IIRC Mars is not geologically active...
From an artist's view.. (Score:3, Insightful)

by NanoGator ( 522640 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @05:07PM (#8274631) Homepage Journal

These pics are cool. It's an interesting mix of alien and familiar. Wish I had something more insightful to say, but I'm a little too startled for that.

- - Image quality (Score:3, Interesting)
    
    by rk ( 6314 ) writes:
    
    The top picture, while very cool and very accurate, is not actually a picture taken directly by the orbiter. Since they take stereo pictures, it is a straightforward task to recompute a new picture from a different angle.
    
    I've seen martian pictures done like this before, but always it was composites with different instruments, like MOC (Mars Orbital Camera) or THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging Spectrometer) to provide the visual component and MOLA (Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter) giving the third dimension d
- - Re:From an artist's view.. (Score:5, Insightful)
    
    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @05:23PM (#8274807) Homepage Journal
    
    I take it you've never been to Utah? And no, that's not a joke, the rock formations out there are breath-taking. Parts of Galaxy Quest were filmed there for that reason.
    
    - Re:From an artist's view.. (Score:1)
      
      by Tablizer ( 95088 ) writes:
      
      Sign seen on Nevada road: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tommarrow you will be in Utah."
Question (Score:3, Interesting)

by El ( 94934 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @05:14PM (#8274707)

Are there any features on Mars that they are saying "might be caused by flowing water" that are not adequately explained by volcanic activity?

- Re:Question (Score:5, Interesting)
  
  by linoleo ( 718385 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @06:10PM (#8275252) Journal
  
  Yes, a great many. We are certain (well, as certain as those things ever are) that "cold" (i.e., non-lava) flows shaped those features on Mars. AFAIK the only alternative under consideration to liquid water being responsible for those flows is mixed gaseous/liquid CO2.
  
- Re:Question (Score:5, Informative)
  
  by snake_dad ( 311844 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @06:48PM (#8275551) Homepage Journal
  
  If you have some time to kill read these [spacedaily.com] three [spacedaily.com] articles [spacedaily.com]. A very nice write-up of a lot of Mars science and theories.
  
  - Re:Question (Score:2, Informative)
    
    by Lady Jazzica ( 689768 ) writes:
    
    The link to the third article should point here [spacedaily.com].
    - Re:Question (Score:1)
      
      by snake_dad ( 311844 ) writes:
      
      Oops.. thanks :)
- Re:Question (Score:1, Informative)
  
  by Anonymous Coward writes:
  
  There's quite a lot of information that proves water on mars, and some that could go either way to the existence of life in those wet areas.
  
  Perhaps the best site on the topic at the moment is http://www.marslife.com/ [marslife.com]
  
  Truly eye opening
Martian Mons? (Score:4, Funny)

by Rick the Red ( 307103 ) writes: <Rick.The.Red@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Friday February 13, 2004 @07:08PM (#8275709) Journal

I prefer the Venusian Mons, myself.
(hint: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus)

Wow! Get the hi-res perspective of Olympus Mons (Score:1, Redundant)

by dtjohnson ( 102237 ) writes:

The little image is good but the hi-res image will take your breath away. I wonder when the last eruption was...
- The scale of this is breathtaking. (Score:2)
  
  by jotaeleemeese ( 303437 ) writes:
  
  Think: the height of the walls around the caldera is 3Km.
  
  A football stadium would be barely visible there.
In other news (Score:2)

by A55M0NKEY ( 554964 ) writes:

Hubble redirected toward earth to snap pictures of 'Mons Pubis'

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Mars Express Images of Olympus Mons 35

Mars Express Images of Olympus Mons More Login

Mars Express Images of Olympus Mons

Lava Tubes!! (Score:3, Interesting)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:2, Interesting)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:1)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:1)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:3, Interesting)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:3, Insightful)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:3, Interesting)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:5, Informative)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:2)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:1)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:2)

Re:Lava Tubes!! (Score:2, Informative)

From an artist's view.. (Score:3, Insightful)

Image quality (Score:3, Interesting)

Re:From an artist's view.. (Score:5, Insightful)

Re:From an artist's view.. (Score:1)

Question (Score:3, Interesting)

Re:Question (Score:5, Interesting)

Re:Question (Score:5, Informative)

Re:Question (Score:2, Informative)

Re:Question (Score:1)

Re:Question (Score:1, Informative)

Martian Mons? (Score:4, Funny)

Wow! Get the hi-res perspective of Olympus Mons (Score:1, Redundant)

The scale of this is breathtaking. (Score:2)

In other news (Score:2)

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