August 9, 2010 - Rush Hour at the Red Planet

Published in cooperation with The Planetary Society

Spend the year in space, one week at a time

Recent Weeks

January 30, 2012 - Lunar Orbiter Liftoff

January 23, 2012 - Magellan Turns up the Stereo

January 16, 2012 - Southern Sibling Sees Stars

January 9, 2012 - Hitching a Ride Home

January 2, 2012 - Transforming the Space Frontier

December 26, 2011 - These Laws Can't Be Broken

December 19, 2011 - Long and Winding Road

December 12, 2011 - Blast from the Past

December 5, 2011 - It’s Just Like Folding a Map

November 28, 2011 - A Warmer, Wetter Mars

November 21, 2011 - Spy in the Sky

November 14, 2011 - The Dark Side of Nebulosity

November 7, 2011 - End of an Era

October 31, 2011 - Final Service Call

October 24, 2011 - STEREO Transit

October 17, 2011 - Observatory Mashup

October 10, 2011 - Brewing up a New Moon

October 3, 2011 - Special Delivery

September 26, 2011 - Tadpoles in Space

September 19, 2011 - International Sunrise

September 12, 2011 - Twins over India

September 5, 2011 - Belly of the Beast

August 29, 2011 - High Resolution

August 22, 2011 - Playing Host

August 15, 2011 - Royal Astronomer

August 8, 2011 - New Life for Leonardo

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Weekly photo essay
Daily Moon phases
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Holidays
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The Week in Space

August 9-15, 2010

Rush Hour at the Red Planet Launched five years ago this week, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spent a lonely seven months cruising to Mars, only to arrive at the Martian equivalent of rush hour as it joined a record five spacecraft that were already busily operating at Mars, either on its surface or in orbit. Despite the crowds, MRO settled into orbit where it would conduct its main mission of searching for evidence that water once existed on the surface of Mars for a long period of time. Carrying a suite of scientific instruments including cameras, spectrometers, and radar, MRO returned this image of the floor of Ius Chasma, which is believed to have been shaped by a process called sapping, when water seeped from the layers of cliffs and evaporated before reaching the canyon floor below.

Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona