Two rovers and three orbiters are active on Mars now! The two rovers have been active for 18 months (as of 7/30/05). Check out the missions at JPL. I particularly like to look at the rover press release images and raw images. The press release images come with explanations. MSSS provides a daily Mars image from orbit. You can also request that their MOC takes an image of Mars for you! The Astrobiology Magazine web site has great science stories about Mars missions as well as other items of astrobiological interest. The photo to the right is an image of "Escher", outcrop in Endurance Crater that shows contractional fracturing. My preferred interpretation (subject to change with actual data) is that the evaporites that compose the rock contracted due to "recent" water loss, creating the mud-crack-like pattern. (see research below) Water on Mars! There is now abundant evidence for water on Mars from orbital images as well as from the Opportunity and Spirit rover missions. Check out these sites for more information: Cross stratification in Eagle Crater as a text press release Evaporite minerals in Eagle Crater as a text press release. Water weathering of volcanic rocks as a text press release. Distributary fan with point bars from Mars Orbiter Camera Neutron evidence for water ice on Mars.

Other interesting sources of Mars information

Planetary Photojournal is a database of all images released from space missions!

MEPAG (Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group)

2004 MEPAG Report on the Scientific Goals, Objectives, Investigations, and Priorities for Mars exploration in addition to many other policy documents.

Would you like to request a Mars Orbiter Camera image? If so, visit http://www.msss.com/plan/intro.
Greg Chavdarian had his requested image taken in March 2004!

DHC's Mars Mars Mars web page

Although I have long been interested in Mars (see my service to the Mars Program), my research did not include work on Mars until after the rover Opportunity beamed back images of sedimentary outcrop. At that point, I felt I might have something to contribute scientifically. I am now co-I on the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory rover scientific cameras in association with Malin Space Science Systems. (See also Malin et al., 2005. The Mast Cameras and Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) for the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory. 36th Annual Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference, Abstract (pdf file).)

Greg Chavdarian proposed to compare sand dunes at White Sands National Monument with structures observed at Opportunity's landing site for his senior thesis (220 KB pdf text and 14 MB pdf of figures). He documented contractional features (photo below) and fins that show similarities to structures observed by Opportunity, and we recently submitted a paper on his research to Geology. Greg is currently working for me on this project.

I also wrote a paper describing why I think it is unlikely that organic compounds would be present in sediments like those characterized by the rover Opportunity at Meridiani Planum. Basically, the abundance of oxidized iron is not compatible with good organic carbon preservation given water and time. See:

Sumner, Dawn Y., 2004. Poor preservational potential of organics in Meridiani Planum hematite-bearing sedimentary rocks, Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets, v. 109, E12007, doi:10.1029/2004JE002321. Abstract (at JGR web site) and an almost final full version (at the UC eScholarship Repository).

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Dawn Y. Sumner
Department of Geology
University of California
Davis, CA 95616
dysumner@ucdavis.edu