A look at Mars Exploration, Google Style...

Google Earth is a wonderful tool for viewing the imagery collected by satellites and aerial photography. BUT did you know that there is the same option available for Mars to be viewed. It is admittedly in its BETA development phases due to the lacking nature of imagery available to Google at the moment but someday soon it will be just as useful to the planetary researchers a its Earth centric predecessor.

The following link is to a view of all the spacecraft that have either landed on Mars or crashed attempting to land on Mars. By clicking on the links on the side it will highlight the site with a text bubble and a picture. Then if you click on the picture it will take you to a page where you can read about the probe.

I learned something today that I was unaware of previously. The USSR sent three probes to Mars before the USA. All save one crashed on landing and the Mars2 only transmitted for 20 seconds after landing. This seems typical for what I have learned of the Old Soviet Era, it was ever the quest for quantity and never the heartfelt concern for quality. In sharp contrast the Viking 1 probe not only landed but also operated for 6 years; similarly Viking 2 remained operational for 3.5 years after landing.

The probes of this decade have had their own slough of failures and successes though none seem to be as unexpected as the two rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) that are still operational and sending valuable information back.

http://www.google.com/mars/#lat=2.108898&lon=-153.28125&zoom=2&q=spacecraft

The "Conspiracy" seems to be no more...

The Face on Mars Conspiracy Theories seems to now be sufficiently debunked by this image, released by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on April 11th 2007. The face has lost its mysterious allure in many ways as the quality of the imagery improved. from the original Viking images. Farewell to a fond dream of many... Though it wasn't ever really a dream of mine. As a Map maker by trade I have seen many aerial images that at one resolution looked remarkable and a higher resolution assumed the ho hum of reality. Though I am certain there will yet be some folks who have much invested in the "face" that claim it is still visible and that it is the visage of a deformed "grey"... That will require that they stretch it a bit but hey anything for a good story is fair game in the realm of Sci-Fi!