More hiking possibilities on Mars!
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on September 27, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconniassance Orbiter (MRO). Dubbed a “terrain sample” by the science team, this picture was likely chosen not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the camera schedule so as to maintain that camera’s proper temperature.
When the team needs to do this they try to pick interesting targets. In this case the location is the region of many many parallel north-south fissures that extend for more than 800 miles south of the giant but relative flat shield volcano Alba Mons. These fissures are grabens, cracks formed when underground pressure pushed the ground up and caused it to spread and crack.
What attracted me to this picture is the ridgeline. It struck me as a wonderful place to hike. I have even indicated in red the likely route any trail-maker would pick to go from the valley below up onto the ridge, and then along its knifelike edge to the south. The height of the cliff down to the east valley averages about six hundred feet, guaranteeing beautiful scenery the entire length.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks this location, with the inset providing a wider view that includes the entire nine-mile-long ridge, with the trail route extended its full length and indicated in red.
As always with Mars, one must remind oneself that we are looking at an alien landscape. Unlike Earth, where almost every spot on the planet is covered with some form of plant or animal life, there is no visible life of any kind anywhere in this terrain. The gravity is also one third that of Earth, making the climbs uphill easier. The temperature however is far colder, almost always below freezing and averaging about minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, though often much much colder than that.
Nonetheless, once good comfortable spacesuits are designed (acting more like clothes than spacesuits), and someone has built a few bed-and-breakfasts at this location both in the valley and on the ridge, we can expect tourists to come here for the scenery. These fissures go on for hundreds of mles to the north, with endless opportunities to explore. There are even a few slope streaks on the opposite wall of the valley, a geological feature unique to Mars whose origin still baffles researchers.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on September 27, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconniassance Orbiter (MRO). Dubbed a “terrain sample” by the science team, this picture was likely chosen not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the camera schedule so as to maintain that camera’s proper temperature.
When the team needs to do this they try to pick interesting targets. In this case the location is the region of many many parallel north-south fissures that extend for more than 800 miles south of the giant but relative flat shield volcano Alba Mons. These fissures are grabens, cracks formed when underground pressure pushed the ground up and caused it to spread and crack.
What attracted me to this picture is the ridgeline. It struck me as a wonderful place to hike. I have even indicated in red the likely route any trail-maker would pick to go from the valley below up onto the ridge, and then along its knifelike edge to the south. The height of the cliff down to the east valley averages about six hundred feet, guaranteeing beautiful scenery the entire length.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks this location, with the inset providing a wider view that includes the entire nine-mile-long ridge, with the trail route extended its full length and indicated in red.
As always with Mars, one must remind oneself that we are looking at an alien landscape. Unlike Earth, where almost every spot on the planet is covered with some form of plant or animal life, there is no visible life of any kind anywhere in this terrain. The gravity is also one third that of Earth, making the climbs uphill easier. The temperature however is far colder, almost always below freezing and averaging about minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, though often much much colder than that.
Nonetheless, once good comfortable spacesuits are designed (acting more like clothes than spacesuits), and someone has built a few bed-and-breakfasts at this location both in the valley and on the ridge, we can expect tourists to come here for the scenery. These fissures go on for hundreds of mles to the north, with endless opportunities to explore. There are even a few slope streaks on the opposite wall of the valley, a geological feature unique to Mars whose origin still baffles researchers.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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