6 August 2012
The MRO Grabs A Pic Of Curiosity Descending to Mars!
Posted by Dan Satterfield
Image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is not an artist's rendering.
This is one amazing picture. Imagine the technology to look at just the right moment from high above Mars, 250 million miles from Earth and grab an image of Curiosity on it’s parachute just about to land. INCREDIBLE!
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
That is amazing. I can’t wait to hear what Curiosity finds.
Dan, this is one reason meteorologists and climatologists need a high altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) like Global Hawk. Dr. Niessen at MIT used to lecture me on how law of of physics drive need for UAVs for high bandwidth images here on earth. I see MRO as functioning as a UAV when it shot this picture. Will be interesting to see on-orbit resolution of lander.
Dan, I retract my above comment. I shouldn’t presume to tell you guys what you need. LEOs or MEOs might work well for you on earth. Depends on how high resolution you need and whether your needs are realtime or not.