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Mars Student Imaging Project
The Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP, sometimes called Mars Student Imaging Program) is a collaboration between NASA and Arizona State University's Mars Education Program that gives United States grade school students the opportunity to participate in Mars research. Students from grade five through college sophomore level work with THEMIS scientists at ASU's Mars Space Flight Facility to take images of sites on Mars using the visible wavelength camera on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. After students frame a research question, they help direct the Mars Odyssey to take images that will answer their question. In June, 2010, seventh grade science students at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, California helped researchers discover a new series of lava tubes, including one with a pit crater A pit crater (also called a subsidence crater or collapse crater) is a depression formed by the sinking or collapse of the surface lying above a void or empty chamber, rather than by the eru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States's civil list of government space agencies, space program, aeronautics research and outer space, space research. National Aeronautics and Space Act, Established in 1958, it succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the American space development effort a distinct civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. It has since led most of America's space exploration programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968–1972 Apollo program missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA supports the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Commercial Crew Program and oversees the development of the Orion (spacecraft), Orion spacecraft and the Sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is one of the List of United States university campuses by enrollment, largest public universities by enrollment in the United States. It was one of about 180 "normal schools" founded in the late 19th century to train teachers for the rapidly growing public common schools. Some closed, but most steadily expanded their role and became state colleges in the early 20th century, then state universities in the late 20th century. One of three universities governed by the Arizona Board of Regents, Arizona State University is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity". ASU has over 183,000 st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermal Emission Imaging System
The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) is a camera on board the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter. It images Mars in the visible and infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum in order to determine the thermal properties of the surface and to refine the distribution of minerals on the surface of Mars as determined by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES). Additionally, it helps scientists to understand how the mineralogy of Mars relates to its landforms, and it can be used to search for thermal hotspots in the Martian subsurface. THEMIS is managed from the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University and was built by the Santa Barbara Remote Sensing division of Raytheon, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, an American multinational corporation, multinational list of conglomerates, conglomerate headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. The instrument is named after Themis, the goddess of justice in ancient Greek mythology. Infrared camera THEMIS detects thermal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars Space Flight Facility
The Mars Space Flight Facility is located at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. The facility is a research center in Arizona State University's School for Earth and Space Exploration. Scientists, researchers, and students there specialize in using instruments on spacecraft at Mars for remote sensing research primarily concerning the geology and mineralogy of the planet. The instruments based at the facility include the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter and two Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometers (Mini-TES) on the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. (A full-size Mars rover model, bedded on reddish-brown sand, dominates the building's lobby.) Before the loss of NASA's Mars Global Surveyor in November 2006, the facility also operated the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) aboard the spacecraft. On May 25, 2011, NASA announced a New Frontiers Mission, OSIRIS-REx, to a carbonaceous asteroid. The mission will include OT ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars Odyssey
''2001 Mars Odyssey'' is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectrometers and a thermal imager to detect evidence of past or present water and ice, as well as study the planet's geology and radiation environment. The data ''Odyssey'' obtains is intended to help answer the question of whether life once existed on Mars and create a risk-assessment of the radiation that future astronauts on Mars might experience. It also acts as a relay for communications between the ''Curiosity'' rover, and previously the Mars Exploration Rovers and ''Phoenix'' lander, to Earth. The mission was named as a tribute to Arthur C. Clarke, evoking the name of his and Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. ''Odyssey'' was launched April 7, 2001, on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martian Lava Tubes
Martian lava tubes are volcanic caverns on Mars that are believed to form as a result of fast-moving, basaltic lava flows associated with shield volcanism. Lava tubes usually form when the external surface of the lava channels cools more quickly and forms a hardened crust over subsurface lava flows. The flow eventually ceases and drains out of the tube, leaving a conduit-shaped void space which is usually several meters below the surface. Lava tubes are typically associated with extremely fluid pahoehoe lava. Gravity on mars is about 38% that of Earth's, allowing Martian lava tubes to be much larger in comparison. Detection and access Lava tubes and related flow structures were first recognized upon examination of Viking orbiter images, and later identified using orbiter imagery from Mars Odyssey, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Lava tubes can visually be detected two ways. The first is as long sinuous troughs known as rilles, which are b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pit Crater
A pit crater (also called a subsidence crater or collapse crater) is a depression formed by the sinking or collapse of the surface lying above a void or empty chamber, rather than by the eruption of a volcano or lava vent. Pit craters are found on Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the Moon. Pit craters are often found in a series of aligned or offset chains; in these cases, the features is called a ''pit-crater chain''. Pit-crater chains are distinguished from catenae or crater chains by their origin. When adjoining walls between pits in a pit-crater chain collapse, they become troughs. In these cases, the craters may merge into a linear alignment and are commonly found along extensional structures such as fractures, fissures, and graben. Pit craters usually lack an elevated rim as well as the ejecta deposits and lava flows that are associated with impact craters.Okubo, Chris, and Stephen Martel. "Pit crater formation on Kilauea volcano, Hawaii." Journal of Volcanology and Geoth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pavonis Mons
Pavonis Mons (Latin for "peacock mountain") is a large shield volcano located in the Tharsis region of the planet Mars. It is the middle member of a chain of three volcanic mountains (collectively known as the Tharsis Montes) that straddle the Martian equator between longitudes 235°E and 259°E. The volcano was discovered by the Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1971, and was originally called Middle Spot. Its name formally became Pavonis Mons in 1973. The equatorial location of its peak and its height make it the ideal terminus for a space elevator, and it has often been proposed as a space elevator location, especially in science fiction. It is also an ideal location for a Sky Ramp. General description Pavonis Mons stands at the southern edge of the Tharsis quadrangle - approximately 400 km southwest of Ascraeus Mons (the northernmost of the Tharsis Montes) and 400 km northeast of Arsia Mons (the southernmost member of the chain). The Tharsis Montes volcanoes lie along ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
