Wow! See Mars as ISS astronauts would see it
Unveiling Mars from ISS-like heights
NASA’s Odyssey orbiter treated space fans to a new perspective of Mars yesterday, November 28, 2023. The Odyssey team stitched 10 images end to end to create a panorama that showcases the Martian horizon from an altitude of approximately 250 miles (400 km). That’s the height of the International Space Station (ISS) above Earth. So this new view of Mars is the view ISS astronauts would get, if the space station orbited Mars instead of Earth.
In the new panorama (above), you can see Mars’s thin atmosphere above the planet. Beautiful!
Space engineer Jonathon Hill, who is operations lead for the THEMIS imaging system – which acquired the raw images last May – said:
No Mars spacecraft has ever had this kind of view before.
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A challenging feat of engineering
According to NASA, obtaining the image was a challenging feat. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin spent three months planning Odyssey’s maneuvers to capture the expansive view of Mars’ thin atmosphere.
To do it, they had to rotate THEMIS, which typically points straight down, nearly 90 degrees for an entire orbit. Before now, they had never attempted it, not in all Odyssey’s 22 years of orbiting Mars. In fact, this spacecraft – which entered Mars orbit in 2001 – is currently NASA’s longest-lasting spacecraft at Mars. Maybe the engineers felt they could take some risks?
And, though it might sound simple task to rotate the camera, in fact it wasn’t simple at all. The task required careful coordination to ensure the spacecraft’s sensitive equipment wouldn’t overheat while exposed to sunlight.
Also, communication with the orbiter was temporarily severed until the process was complete.
That must have caused some nail-biting!
Phobos’ enigmatic origin
The THEMIS imaging system didn’t just point downward at Mars. It also directed its focus toward Mars’ tiny moon, Phobos, providing insight into where it came from and what it’s made of. NASA said this new data might help settle the ongoing debate among scientists about Phobos’s origin: Is it a captured asteroid or an ejected fragment from Mars?
More than just pretty
Spacecraft images can be breathtaking. But they’re more than just pretty. In the case of Mars, especially, the images taken from orbit and from the ground serve as valuable assets for future space exploration efforts.
The team managing Odyssey already plans to replicate these observations in the future, capturing the Martian atmosphere across various seasons. That’ll be exciting!
Bottom line: What if the International Space Station orbited Mars? Space engineers took three months to plan this amazing new view of Mars, as ISS astronauts would see it.
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