Andrew Yee[_1_]
May 22nd 08, 04:03 AM
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
16/05/08
The radar SHARAD completes the Mars stratigraphy
The radar sounder SHARAD of the NASA mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has
provided images of the Mars North Pole stratigraphy. This is the beginning
of the article "Mars North Polar Deposits: Stratigraphy, Age and
Geodynamical Response", published Friday on Science and prepared by a team
of Italian and USA scientists, among which the radar scientific responsible,
Dr. Roberto Seu, a scientist of the INFOCOM Department of La Sapienza
University (Rome). The article analyzes the data of SHARAD, a Italian radar
provided by Italian Space Agency (ASI).
The radar, initially conceived by the team of Prof Giovanni Picardi, INFOCOM
Department, has been realized in cooperation with the Italian main industry
in space field, Thales Alenia Space Italia, showing that ASI, university and
industry could cooperate and obtain excellence results together.
Its features allow to "watch", using radio frequencies, even under an
optical unfathomable surface. Between geologists and planetologists there is
a common idea that the north pole of Mars is the result of 3 billions of
years of sedimentations and ice erosion never deeply observed before. SHARAD
is able to "watch" inside its composition for several hundreds of meters in
depth.
"The layers are mainly shaped from ice and powders mixtures, in different
fractions. The analysis of these layers has given various and important
results, which have allowed to get better the knowledge of Mars climatology
and so the variations of the obliquity and the orbital eccentricity of the
planet that could had cycles long about millions of years," Dr. Seu says.
Moreover, from the observation of the rocky layer deflexion, on which ice
and powder layers are positioned and caused from its weight, it has been
possible to esteem the mantle viscosity and so the warmth production more in
deepth. In particular it has been verified that the Mars lithosphere could
be larger than we thought some years ago. It means that the conditions
finding water in liquid form and so the conditions for each life form should
stay deeper than we thought some years ago.
SHARAD has been working since the beginning of November 2006 and the
planning of observation and data elaboration has been realized by young
contractor engineers with the INFOCOM Department in a centre developed on
behalf of ASI at Thales Alenia Space in Rome, with the scientific
supervision of Dr. Seu. "The quantity and the quality of the onboard
instruments observations, and in particular of SHARAD, overcome all
expectations and are convincing NASA to approve the extension of the mission
till the end of 2010," Dr. E. Flamini, the ASI responsible for the program,
says. Together with SHARAD, another Italian radar sounder, is working around
Mars, on board of the European probe Mars Express: MARSIS, with Prof.
Giovanni Picardi as principal investigator. These two radars are
complementary about the deep observation under the surface and the
capability of underline thin layers.
16/05/08
The radar SHARAD completes the Mars stratigraphy
The radar sounder SHARAD of the NASA mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has
provided images of the Mars North Pole stratigraphy. This is the beginning
of the article "Mars North Polar Deposits: Stratigraphy, Age and
Geodynamical Response", published Friday on Science and prepared by a team
of Italian and USA scientists, among which the radar scientific responsible,
Dr. Roberto Seu, a scientist of the INFOCOM Department of La Sapienza
University (Rome). The article analyzes the data of SHARAD, a Italian radar
provided by Italian Space Agency (ASI).
The radar, initially conceived by the team of Prof Giovanni Picardi, INFOCOM
Department, has been realized in cooperation with the Italian main industry
in space field, Thales Alenia Space Italia, showing that ASI, university and
industry could cooperate and obtain excellence results together.
Its features allow to "watch", using radio frequencies, even under an
optical unfathomable surface. Between geologists and planetologists there is
a common idea that the north pole of Mars is the result of 3 billions of
years of sedimentations and ice erosion never deeply observed before. SHARAD
is able to "watch" inside its composition for several hundreds of meters in
depth.
"The layers are mainly shaped from ice and powders mixtures, in different
fractions. The analysis of these layers has given various and important
results, which have allowed to get better the knowledge of Mars climatology
and so the variations of the obliquity and the orbital eccentricity of the
planet that could had cycles long about millions of years," Dr. Seu says.
Moreover, from the observation of the rocky layer deflexion, on which ice
and powder layers are positioned and caused from its weight, it has been
possible to esteem the mantle viscosity and so the warmth production more in
deepth. In particular it has been verified that the Mars lithosphere could
be larger than we thought some years ago. It means that the conditions
finding water in liquid form and so the conditions for each life form should
stay deeper than we thought some years ago.
SHARAD has been working since the beginning of November 2006 and the
planning of observation and data elaboration has been realized by young
contractor engineers with the INFOCOM Department in a centre developed on
behalf of ASI at Thales Alenia Space in Rome, with the scientific
supervision of Dr. Seu. "The quantity and the quality of the onboard
instruments observations, and in particular of SHARAD, overcome all
expectations and are convincing NASA to approve the extension of the mission
till the end of 2010," Dr. E. Flamini, the ASI responsible for the program,
says. Together with SHARAD, another Italian radar sounder, is working around
Mars, on board of the European probe Mars Express: MARSIS, with Prof.
Giovanni Picardi as principal investigator. These two radars are
complementary about the deep observation under the surface and the
capability of underline thin layers.