The icy mountains close to where SpaceX hopes to land Starship on Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 25, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled as showing “flow features” by the scientists, it gives us a nice example of many of the different types of glacial and near-surface ice features seen routinely in the Martian latitudes above 30 degrees, especially in the northern hemisphere.
First there is the apron around the mound. Its layering suggests the many cycles that Mars’ climate has undergone as its rotational tilt swung back and forth from as low as 11 to as much as 60 degrees (it is presently at 25 degrees).
The mound, with those two depressions at its peak, suggests the possibility that it is some form of ice/mud volcano, similar to the suspected ice/mud volcanoes routinely seen in the northern lowland plains of Utopia Basin.
On the overview map to the right the yellow dot, in the Erebus mountains, marks this location, only about 100 miles west of the nearest prime landing site for SpaceX’s Starship, the red dot labeled #2.
Though the shadows suggest there are two separate mounds on the picture’s right edge, it is actually one hill about 600 feet high, with the peak on the mound to the northeast. The saddle in between is extremely shallow, and indicates that the inner darker apron is a glacier-like feature that drapes this part of the hill. In fact, the topography data suggests that saddle could be source of this supposed ice/mud volcano.
Regardless, the data indicates that the first mountains that Starship’s first colonists will visit will be chock full of ice and water.
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.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 25, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled as showing “flow features” by the scientists, it gives us a nice example of many of the different types of glacial and near-surface ice features seen routinely in the Martian latitudes above 30 degrees, especially in the northern hemisphere.
First there is the apron around the mound. Its layering suggests the many cycles that Mars’ climate has undergone as its rotational tilt swung back and forth from as low as 11 to as much as 60 degrees (it is presently at 25 degrees).
The mound, with those two depressions at its peak, suggests the possibility that it is some form of ice/mud volcano, similar to the suspected ice/mud volcanoes routinely seen in the northern lowland plains of Utopia Basin.
On the overview map to the right the yellow dot, in the Erebus mountains, marks this location, only about 100 miles west of the nearest prime landing site for SpaceX’s Starship, the red dot labeled #2.
Though the shadows suggest there are two separate mounds on the picture’s right edge, it is actually one hill about 600 feet high, with the peak on the mound to the northeast. The saddle in between is extremely shallow, and indicates that the inner darker apron is a glacier-like feature that drapes this part of the hill. In fact, the topography data suggests that saddle could be source of this supposed ice/mud volcano.
Regardless, the data indicates that the first mountains that Starship’s first colonists will visit will be chock full of ice and water.
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.
Nothing to do with the topic here, but. FYI: I have noticed lately (last week or two) when I will open your web page, it would always start with the newest story whether or not I had read. Now when I go to the page, I leaves off where the I was the last time I came here. I have to hit the refresh button to get the latest stories. I don’t think I changed a setting on my browse as is true for my computer, Phone and tablet.
Jhon
Jhon B: Others have made the same comment. My webguy has done some upgrades. I’ve asked my readers to let me know if anything changes, for good or ill.
I don’t seem to be experiencing any issues today, I see new content without having had to force refresh.
I was having the same issue, but also not today. On another note. When we visit Mars through picture here, I always think back to Red Planet, Blue Planet, Green Planet trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. I can actually visualize some of the things that were in the first book (Red Mars). Helicopters and/or floating balloons of some tye were used for modest transport (Ingenuity but larger). Just thinking.