More great hiking on Mars
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image takes us to another place on Mars where future colonizers will find the hiking breath-taking. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 18, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The camera team labeled it merely as a “terrain sample,” indicating it was not taken as part of any specific research project request, but to fill a gap in the schedule in order to maintain the camera’s proper temperature. When the MRO team does this, they try to pick interesting sites, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
In this case the image captured the sharp nose of a 2,100-foot-high mesa which to my eye immedately said, “I want to hike a trail that switchbacks up that nose!” Ideally, the trail would then skirt the edge of the mesa, then head up to the top of that small knoll on the plateau. Though only another 200 feet higher or so, the peak would provide an amazing 360 degree view of the surrounding terrrain.
On the overview map to the right, the white dot at the outlet of the 900-mile-long Ares Valles channel marks the location of this mesa, about 150 miles southeast from where Mars Pathfinder landed in 1997. At this point the channel is about 60 miles wide, and the mesa sits almost exactly in its middle. Initially the formation of Ares was believed to have been caused by catastrophic floods, but newer research suggests instead the slow motion of giant glaciers might have played a part. Whatever carved this long canyon however hit the mesa at this point and was diverted to either side.
The views would be spectacular, but remarkable barren at the same time. Unlike Earth, the landscape of Mars shows no visible life at all, and in most places the colors are confined to range of orange to red.
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Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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Click for original image.
Today’s cool image takes us to another place on Mars where future colonizers will find the hiking breath-taking. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 18, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The camera team labeled it merely as a “terrain sample,” indicating it was not taken as part of any specific research project request, but to fill a gap in the schedule in order to maintain the camera’s proper temperature. When the MRO team does this, they try to pick interesting sites, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
In this case the image captured the sharp nose of a 2,100-foot-high mesa which to my eye immedately said, “I want to hike a trail that switchbacks up that nose!” Ideally, the trail would then skirt the edge of the mesa, then head up to the top of that small knoll on the plateau. Though only another 200 feet higher or so, the peak would provide an amazing 360 degree view of the surrounding terrrain.
On the overview map to the right, the white dot at the outlet of the 900-mile-long Ares Valles channel marks the location of this mesa, about 150 miles southeast from where Mars Pathfinder landed in 1997. At this point the channel is about 60 miles wide, and the mesa sits almost exactly in its middle. Initially the formation of Ares was believed to have been caused by catastrophic floods, but newer research suggests instead the slow motion of giant glaciers might have played a part. Whatever carved this long canyon however hit the mesa at this point and was diverted to either side.
The views would be spectacular, but remarkable barren at the same time. Unlike Earth, the landscape of Mars shows no visible life at all, and in most places the colors are confined to range of orange to red.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“I want to hike a trail that switchbacks up that nose!”
I have fun memories of hiking the Grand Canyon, and other state and national parks… but let’s examine the differences on Mars?
On the good side you’ll be hiking in 1/3 gravity.
But you’ll be in a space suit, carrying your oxygen, in temperatures that are far below freezing. The dirt will be soft, but the rocks sharp.
Also the view would be spectacular from such a height, but the dusty horizon at ground level is about 2 to 3 miles. (Mars is 1/2 the circumference of earth)
It appears the Mesa tapers off into the Delta… An easy drive for a vehicle to meet you on top to replenish your oxygen before you attempt hang gliding back to the bottom on the almost nonexistent air currents.
I would rather just drive a fast dune buggy across the planet. Electric of course and modified for the environment.
We can have a Mars 500 km race.
Does anybody know what the colored band running through the picture is for? We see it in many of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pictures?
Marcy: The color band is from MRO’s color filters. As I understand it (though I might not be entirely accurate here) the higher data requirements for color limits it to only this single band for each picture.
A problem with one of MRO’s filters now leaves this strip blank in the black & white image (see here), so the camera team now fills it in routinely with the color strip.