PIA16970: Images of Gale #18
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  2001 Mars Odyssey
 Spacecraft:  2001 Mars Odyssey
 Instrument:  THEMIS
 Product Size:  1347 x 2778 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Arizona State University
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA16970.tif (3.746 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA16970.jpg (303.8 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Context image for PIA16970
Context image

During the month of April Mars will be in conjunction relative to the Earth. This means the Sun is in the line-of-sight between Earth and Mars, and communication between the two planets is almost impossible. For conjunction, the rovers and orbiting spacecraft at Mars continue to operate, but do not send the data to Earth. This recorded data will be sent to Earth when Mars moves away from the sun and the line-of-sight between Earth and Mars is reestablished. During conjunction the THEMIS image of the day will be a visual tour of Gale Crater, the location of the newest rover Curiosity.

Today's image shows almost the same region as the previous image - showing the major channel that started near the top of Mt. Sharp. Near the top of this image is a wide valley that reaches to the crater floor and the nearby dunes. It is this valley that has been chosen as a possible route for Curiosity to use for driving onto Mt. Sharp.

Orbit Number: 35551 Latitude: -5.16407 Longitude: 137.394 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2009-12-19 13:02

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Image Addition Date:
2013-04-26