A September 2008 release of 1,575 new images, such as this one, from the
Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer (CRISM) on NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter brings the number of released, high-resolution
CRISM images to 4,580. This image in enhanced color from visible-light
wavelengths shows light-toned rugged highland material in an area near the
Martian equator. It covers an area about 10 kilometers or 6 miles wide.
The images from the instrument are helping researchers learn what minerals
are on the Martian surface at many areas, including candidate landing
sites for future Mars missions.
The images are on the CRISM Web site, http://crism.jhuapl.edu/, which also
offers an online map showing the locations on Mars for which the
spectrometer images are available. Images specifically for supporting the
evaluation of candidate landing sites are also at links from
http://crism.jhuapl.edu/msl_landing_sites/index.php#label5.
CRISM is one of six science instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Led by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel,
Md., the CRISM team includes expertise from universities, government
agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad. NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
Denver, built the orbiter.
