What the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found on Mars

As you may have guessed, Mars exploration and colonization have been a hot topic ever since US entrepreneur Elon Musk entered the space business.

But there's another reason we humans want to know more about the red planet: our immediate neighboring planets can provide us with valuable clues about the fate of our home planet since the early 2000s.

Credit to NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA alone has sent 10 probes to Mars, and there are numerous other probes from the European Space Agency.

The Mars Reconnaissance Mission:

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, abbreviated MRO, is the 27th probe humans have sent to Mars. MRO is a NASA project. Research Source

Data from it is available to participating scientists from around the world. The orbiter was launched on August 12, 2005, at the tip of an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Mars was very close to the earth at the time, so the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft successfully entered Mars orbit a few months later on March 10, 2006. Since then, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been continuously transmitting data to earth for communication.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a directional antenna with a diameter of about 10 feet, which can achieve transmission rates of up to 6 megabits per second.

NASA is currently continuing to operate the spacecraft as long as it continues to function and provide profitable data for power supply. The orbiter is equipped with two long-lasting solar sails, each about 15 feet long.

Preparations for the First Humans on Mars people have been thinking about manned flights and a space station on Mars long before Elon Musk founded his space company, and Nasa drew up initial plans for this as early as the 1990s.

In order to implement these plans, we need more information about Mars. While space travelers or later settlers would be left to their own devices so far from Earth, supply flights would take years.

A spaceship with people and cargo weighing tonnes would take much longer to fly to Mars than a comparatively small and light probe with no water at all on-site, putting the survival of the martian settlers in constant jeopardy.

The Best Camera in Space:

To unlock Mars' secrets The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ( MRO) has a particularly fine resolution camera on board at three feet per pixel. Research Search

The high-resolution imaging science HiRISE Experiment Camera, or highrise, far surpasses its predecessors. The images can be magnified on earth as high resolution and optionally even real colors.

Credit to NASA / JPL-Caltech.

This is necessary for identifying structures more reliably since martian rocks and the surface look somewhat different from what we see on earth. Even experts cannot always clearly identify and distinguish ice, rock, water, or other structures.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission should finally change that and provide new unique insights. We now present the most exciting discoveries. A Safe Landing Site for the Curiosity Rover?

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was one of the first missions, searching for suitable landing sites for its brother, the Curiosity Rover, which was still under consideration at the time.

Images provided evidence that water may have once existed there. Clay minerals and carbonates could be traces of a former river landscape. Whether pure water still lurks in the depths of Mars is one of the big questions of its exploration.

Mars is Gone:

For millions of years, the surface of Mars has been shaped by aridity and storms. Regular sandstorms sometimes completely envelop the planet. Research Source

Credit to NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Wind speeds averaging 62 miles per hour are harmless, but that a sandstorm is so large that it causes an entire planet to disappear is unusual. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to image this very phenomenon with unprecedented clarity.

An image was taken on May 28th, 2018 shows the red planet in its normal guise, and barely a month later, on July 1st, it was completely enveloped in the sand.

Huge Avalanches in the Martian Spring:

Warm water is suspected under the miles thick ice layers of Mars, according to researchers. Suddenly, the orbiter's fine sensors registered a huge upheaval of soil material nearby. Research Source

Credit to NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Four avalanches thundered down from a rock face nearly 2300 feet high, and the whirling dust cloud reached a height of about 620 feet in the area of the downfall.

Spider Patterns on Mars?

The escaping carbon dioxide vapors are also responsible for this unique spider pattern. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter first captured the spider structures in beautiful clear images on February 4th, 2009. Research Source

Credit to NASA / JPL-Caltech.

The craters and lines created as the vapors escape are indeed reminiscent of giant tarantulas or many tiny spider legs. The transition of frozen carbon dioxide ice into gas, also known as sublimation, shapes large parts of the martian surface.

Dust Devil:

Thousands of feet in altitude Another highlight captured by the highrise camera was this dust devil. The long, narrow whirlwind curls over the ground like a giant worm. Research Source

Credit to NASA / JPL-Caltech.

The image was taken on February 16, 2019, from about 185 miles away. Surveys showed that the dust devil must have been at least 2,600. That's roughly the height of the world's current tallest building. The Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai