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.
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 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.
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
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.