The nearest hill to China’s Zhurong
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The science team for the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) today released a pair of images the camera took on June 28, 2021 of the nearest pitted cone to China’s Zhurong rover.
The stereo anaglyph to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, allows you, with blue-red 3D glasses, to see the cone in three dimensions. Quite impressive. As noted by Alfred McEwen of the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory in Arizona in his caption,
This image completed a stereo pair of a region just west of where the Zhurong rover landed in southern Utopia Planitia.
The cutout is from a portion of the stereo anaglyph, showing an enigmatic pitted cone. Is this cone composed of sediments or volcanic materials? The sharp bright features surrounding the cone are aeolian (wind-blown) landforms.
According to McEwan, the hill itself is about 200 to 220 feet high, with the pit at its top about 60-65 feet deep.
While McEwan has told me this cone would be his primary target if he was running Zhurong, it appears the Chinese are instead heading south toward the largest nearby crater, and on the way inspecting the parachute, fairing, and heat shield discarded just prior to landing.
The mosaic below from three MRO context camera images provides a wider overview.
Click here, here, and here for full images.
This wide orbital image to the right, taken from my June 11th post, shows both the pitted cone to the north of the red cross where Zhurong landed, and the crater to the south. The crater is only slightly closer. The white box is a section highlighted in a cool image from June 7th. The red box marks an area covered by one of only two orbital images released by China from its Tianwen-1 orbiter.
Which is a better geological feature to study? The origins of these pitted cones, which are many in Utopia Basin where Zhurong landed, is unknown. They appear to be some form of volcano, but were they formed from molton lava or mud or ice?
The crater however will have caused material from the interior to be ejected to the surface, which will allow Zhurong to get a taste of that interior. And since Zhurong’s primary mission appears to be to study that interior, including ground-penetrating radar to look for underground ice, the crater makes sense as a primary target.
The rover only has about three more weeks left in its nominal three month mission. However, if all is working right that mission will certainly be extended for as long as possible. Thus, all these targets, plus others, might be reached eventually.
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
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P.O.Box 1262
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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 full image.
Cool image time! The science team for the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) today released a pair of images the camera took on June 28, 2021 of the nearest pitted cone to China’s Zhurong rover.
The stereo anaglyph to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, allows you, with blue-red 3D glasses, to see the cone in three dimensions. Quite impressive. As noted by Alfred McEwen of the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory in Arizona in his caption,
This image completed a stereo pair of a region just west of where the Zhurong rover landed in southern Utopia Planitia.
The cutout is from a portion of the stereo anaglyph, showing an enigmatic pitted cone. Is this cone composed of sediments or volcanic materials? The sharp bright features surrounding the cone are aeolian (wind-blown) landforms.
According to McEwan, the hill itself is about 200 to 220 feet high, with the pit at its top about 60-65 feet deep.
While McEwan has told me this cone would be his primary target if he was running Zhurong, it appears the Chinese are instead heading south toward the largest nearby crater, and on the way inspecting the parachute, fairing, and heat shield discarded just prior to landing.
The mosaic below from three MRO context camera images provides a wider overview.
Click here, here, and here for full images.
This wide orbital image to the right, taken from my June 11th post, shows both the pitted cone to the north of the red cross where Zhurong landed, and the crater to the south. The crater is only slightly closer. The white box is a section highlighted in a cool image from June 7th. The red box marks an area covered by one of only two orbital images released by China from its Tianwen-1 orbiter.
Which is a better geological feature to study? The origins of these pitted cones, which are many in Utopia Basin where Zhurong landed, is unknown. They appear to be some form of volcano, but were they formed from molton lava or mud or ice?
The crater however will have caused material from the interior to be ejected to the surface, which will allow Zhurong to get a taste of that interior. And since Zhurong’s primary mission appears to be to study that interior, including ground-penetrating radar to look for underground ice, the crater makes sense as a primary target.
The rover only has about three more weeks left in its nominal three month mission. However, if all is working right that mission will certainly be extended for as long as possible. Thus, all these targets, plus others, might be reached eventually.
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.
The pitted cones are almost certainly not volcanic in my opinion… either mud volcanoes or possibly (also doubtful) pingos. It would be criminal if they don’t send the rover to investigate it.
Bill Farrand: I strongly suspect this MRO image was taken in the hope it would encourage the Chinese in this exact direction.
I think that, based on the distance the rover traveled in one month (more than a thousand feet), and based also on how well it appears to be functioning, I honestly think they are going to try to go both to the crater, and then head north along that ridgeline and eventually reach the cone. I am guessing, but that looks like a reasonable plan.
“with blue-red 3D glasses”
These are available for a modest price on line if you do a search for “3-D glasses”
Glad I keep my 3D glasses in my desk drawer! Thanks – I’d been hoping for stereopair or similar image formats. Can really bring out detail otherwise missed.