Mars map

Does anyone know of a site that labels all the Martian terrain, craters,
mons etc. Astro mag had one many moons ago; and I found one by googling but
it didn't have terrain labels. It did have degrees though, and I was able
to roughly locate Gusev (175e 14s). MER is not going to get out of the
crater btw? What's its range? Where is Opportunity scheduled to land?

Mike wrote:

Does anyone know of a site that labels all the Martian terrain, craters,
mons etc. Astro mag had one many moons ago; and I found one by googling but
it didn't have terrain labels. It did have degrees though, and I was able
to roughly locate Gusev (175e 14s). MER is not going to get out of the
crater btw? What's its range? Where is Opportunity scheduled to land?

There's an excellent-quality, large (pushing 8 MB!) PDF based on data
from the MOLA survey at

http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of02-282/of02-282.pdf;

although it's in false colour indicating altitude, and therefore
sometimes hard to correlate with visible surface features, it has
plenty of labels -- and they're searchable text.

--
Odysseus

Mike posted:

Does anyone know of a site that labels all the Martian terrain, craters,
mons etc. Astro mag had one many moons ago; and I found one by googling but
it didn't have terrain labels. It did have degrees though, and I was able
to roughly locate Gusev (175e 14s).

For the albedo features and classical names, try the following:

http://ralphaeschliman.com/mars/Alb-lamasm.jpg

For an Atlas based on the Mars Orbiter Camera images (Mars Global Surveyor),
try the following:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/...las/index.html

There is also mapping available at the Planetary Data Service:

http://pdsmaps.wr.usgs.gov/PDS/publi...l/marslvls.htm

For information about the location and nomenlcature of the Martian features,
check out the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature at:

http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/

There is also a nice set of spectacular dowloadable maps of various parts of
the Martian surface complete with names (in PDF format) with altitude data
assembled from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter data set on that same site.

MER is not going to get out of the
crater btw? What's its range? Where is Opportunity scheduled to land?

No, Spirit will not leave Gusev, as Gusev is huge (166 km or around 103 miles
across) and the rovers only have a range over their lifetimes of a few
kilometers at best. Opportunity will land in the western part of the albedo
feature known as Sinus Meridiani (Meridiani Terra) somewhere in an elongated
landing ellipse centered at about 2.2 degrees South latitude, 5.7 degrees West
Longitude (354.3 degrees East Longitude). This site is known to the
scientists as "the Hematite Site", where the mineral Hematite may be found on
the surface. Clear skies to you.

--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

**********************************************
* Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY *
* July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir *
* http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org *
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"David Knisely" wrote in message
...
There is also mapping available at the Planetary Data Service:

http://pdsmaps.wr.usgs.gov/PDS/publi...l/marslvls.htm


I was able to locate Gusev on the easy map link ( 14s neg 174w ). Don't
zoom in too close; you won't be able to see the forest for the trees. I
reckon the mountain ridge to the southeast (3:30 on the crater dial) of
spirit is approximately 3,000 feet high. Why don't those show in pix? Not
to nit pick, but does anyone know exactly where in the crater Spirit is, say
using the following - Gusev small scale map link
http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/landing...opsites/final/

Also, was it planned to go to the mouth of the river?

Why didn't they put windshield wipers on the solar decks?

MIke posted:

I was able to locate Gusev on the easy map link ( 14s neg 174w ). Don't
zoom in too close; you won't be able to see the forest for the trees. I
reckon the mountain ridge to the southeast (3:30 on the crater dial) of
spirit is approximately 3,000 feet high. Why don't those show in pix?

There is no extensive mountain range that high immediately to the southeast of
the lander. There is the rim of a mostly burried crater well to the east, but
its too low to show up from the landing site. The rim of Gusev crater is much
farther away, and it might look like a mountain range on the map, but it is
not really one. Gusev is huge (166 kilometers or over 100 miles across), and
the tallest portion of its rim is the east part, which may be as high as 2.9
kilometers (over 9,500 feet) above the elevation of the landing site of
Spirit. The rim is probably at its closest about 45 kilometers south of the
landing site, but that portion of the rim is not as tall (around 2.4
kilometers above the landing site's elevation). The curvature of the planet
along with the gently rolling nature of the crater floor blocks the view of
the rim of Gusev from the landing location. In fact, the most distant feature
shown on the Spirit rover images is the so-called "South Mesa", which appears
as a dim low bump, but is 27 kilometers (nearly 17 miles) south of the landing
site. It is part of a complex of raised but eroded features which sit inside
the base of the southern walls of Gusev.
There is a small cluster of hills seen in the Spirit images on the
southeastern horizon which are too small to show up on the maps, but do show
up on the Mars Global Surveyor images of the area. The highest of these is
only about 320 feet high at most, and the hills are only between 2.9 and 4.4
kilometers (1.8 to 2.8 miles) away from the rover's current position. In
fact, one of the ideas mission planners are considering is an extended drive
over to these hills.

Not
to nit pick, but does anyone know exactly where in the crater Spirit is, say
using the following - Gusev small scale map link

Spirt is sitting just a tiny tad southeast of the very center of Gusev. Try
the following map to get an idea of where it is and what the elevations (in
meters) a
http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/landing...s/final/Gusev/

it is marked with a tiny box showing Spirit's landing location. This map may
take a while to load, so be patient.

Also, was it planned to go to the mouth of the river?

No, the mouth of the valley (not a river) Ma'adim Vallis is a rough area which
is too dangerous to attempt a landing there (its way too far away for the
rover to get to in its lifetime). I would have liked them to go there too,
but I would rather get a probe down safely in the first place than to risk
losing it just to try to get closer to the valley mouth.

Why didn't they put windshield wipers on the solar decks?

Because it doesn't rain on Mars :-). If you mean to get rid of the dust, a
wiper might just pull the dust along and scratch up the surface of the solar
panels, making a bad situation even worse. It was estimated that the rover
would eventually fail due to the batteries not holding a charge, so cleaning
the panels might not extend the rover's life span much anyway. The next
project will power its rover using Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators
(RTGs), so solar panels will not be needed. Clear skies to you.
--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

**********************************************
* Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY *
* July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir *
* http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org *
**********************************************