7.12.06

MGS Swan Song is Liquid Spurt


On seeing these images on the news last night, my first thought was that they were from shiny new toy Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. MRO has, however, been wiling away its time taking pictures of the robot party on Mars. The images above, which span a period of four years, are the work of Mars Global Surveyor. NASA lost contact with MGS over a month ago, around the same time as its 10th anniversary. The reason the pictures are so important is that they are the first compelling evidence that liquid water still occasionally flows on Mars. There is a sad, but still slightly hopeful article about MGS at its official site, here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done noble MGS!
From what I understand, it lasted far longer than anyone could have expected - and at least it went out with one last "hurrah" of important information, ensuring it's place in the science history book.

*Sniff* Poor little guy...

Pacian said...

Expected: 2 years
Received: 10 years

We'll have to see how the next generation of Mars probes compare in terms of longevity...

*Sniff* Poor little guy...

Don't give up hope! Or else!

>:-(