[meteorite-list] NASA Orbiter Views Sites of Fiction Film's Mars Landings (MRO)

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4726

NASA Orbiter Views Sites of Fiction Film's Mars Landings
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
October 5, 2015

Images from a NASA Mars orbiter's telescopic camera reveal details of 
real regions on Mars where a new Hollywood movie, "The Martian," places 
future astronaut adventures.

The novel of the same name used actual locations on Mars for the landing 
sites for its "Ares 3" and "Ares 4" missions. The landing sites for "Ares 
3" is on a Martian plain named Acidalia Planitia. The base for the "Ares 
4" mission was set inside a crater named Schiaparelli.

Views of these two sites, and other locations pertinent to the fictional 
story, are in the latest weekly release of images from the High Resolution 
Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance 
Orbiter. They are available online at:

http://uahirise.org/martian

Each observation by HiRISE covers an area of several square miles and 
shows details as small as a desk. More than 39,000 of them have been taken 
since the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached Mars in 2006. They are available 
online for anyone to explore, from the comfort of home, at:

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu

The HiRISE team has an online process through which anyone can register 
to submit suggestions for sites to be imaged on Mars, at:

http://www.uahirise.org/hiwish

HiRISE has provided important information used in selection landing sites 
for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover and other robotic missions. Its observations 
will be used during an Oct. 27-30 workshop in Houston for consideration 
of landing areas for real future human missions. More information about 
the workshop is online at:

http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/explorationzone2015

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument 
was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. The 
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory, Pasadena, California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 
Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology 
in Pasadena.

For more information about the MRO, which has been studying Mars from 
orbit since 2006, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mro


Media Contact

DC Agle / Guy Webster 818-393-9011 / 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov / guy.w.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo 202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo at nasa.gov 

Daniel Stolte 520-626-4402
University of Arizona, Tucson
stolte at email.arizona.edu 

2015-309