MOM At Mars, Mission Operations Options

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Successful insertion!!!!! Congratulations to ISRO!!!!

[Astro0]

That's two for two this week!! And now seven spacecraft operating at Mars!!

CanberraDSN (along with Goldstone) acquired the signal confirming that ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission successfully made orbit



Accomplishment Unlocked!

[nprev]

Apparently only available as a Facebook link right now, but this is the first image (and it's nice.)

[djellison]

By my guessing it's approx 1100 x 850km, the southern end of Syrtis Major - about 72E, 2S in the center.

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[nprev]

And you call that "guessing"... Great context!

Seems to have a bit of motion blur is all, but that may be a subjective impression on my part.

[Astro0]

Just posting the first image here.



From ISRO's twitter: 1st image of Mars, from a height of 7300 km; with 376m spatial resolution.

[kenny]

A great first photo ... and in colour! The spacecraft and instruments are still in commissioning phase, so hopefully image resolution will improve later.

Initial orbit is 421.7 km by 76,994 km, at an inclination to Mars’ equatorial plane of 150 degrees. Orbital period is 72 hours 52 minutes. The periapsis was
predicted to be 515km after the last course correction, so it came in a little low.

The BBC and CNN have been reporting along the following lines:

“ (CNN) -- India's Mars Orbiter Mission successfully entered Mars' orbit Wednesday morning, becoming the first nation to arrive on its first attempt and the
first Asian country to reach the Red Planet. “

In fact, Mars Express made ESA the first nation/ region to succeed at its first attempt. Both Japan (Nozomi) and China (Yinghuo 1) have attempted
Mars probes which failed. So this is a major first for India, in Asia’s “mini space race”.

[nprev]

MOD MODE: Reminder to all members that rule 1.2 will be enforced, and posts that violate that rule will be deleted without warning.

Mod hat off. Let's please celebrate achievements here on their own merits instead of making essentially futile comparisons of the "first", "better", etc. variety, which never seem to accomplish anything but raising tensions.

MOM is a remarkable achievement thus far, and it seems as if we'll have a considerable amount of not only new imagery but also new science data to talk about in short order. Good stuff.

[elakdawalla]

A second photo. This one is actually at the camera's full resolution of 2048 pixels square! Can anybody identify the location?

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[Julius]

A second photo. This one is actually at the camera's full resolution of 2048 pixels square! Can anybody identify the location?

It's the southern hemisphere for sure but I wouldn't dare say exactly where

[machi]

It shows boundary between Terra Sabaea and Arabia Terra (it's mostly Terra Sabaea). The biggest visible crater is Tikhonravov.
EDIT: I uploaded improved graphics, older version was deleted.

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[Phil Stooke]

Good for you! You're right. I was looking but hadn't found it yet. And it's in the northern hemisphere (sorry Julius!)

Appropriately, the small feature Indus Vallis is in this area, as the map shows.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Playing with the ISRO image (Thanks, ISRO!) to bring out the surface features a bit better:



Phil

[4throck]

Phil, that last image looks like something from Mariner 4!

Nice to see the images being released fast.
Also good color balance / correction for first images.

I think the camera is a bit out of focus, but that's expected for such an early mission phase.

[MarsInMyLifetime]

I think the camera is a bit out of focus, but that's expected for such an early mission phase.

I worked with the hi-def image a bit. The saturation is probably higher than true color. The color histogram clearly shows the peaks of primary red, green, and blue contributions; playing with these channels brought out different limb features, although there I could not be certain I was seeing true layers or the contribution of the very heavy compression blocks. My impression is that this image is probably a better representation of the mission's atmospheric research goals than of the general photographic capability of the camera--playing with levels pretty much kills the limb structure. Data with more gray scale and less compression will tell a better story of the geologic capabilities of the camera.

[Krit]

Another photo (from the ISRO Facebook Page)

"Regional dust storm activities over northern hemisphere of Mars - captured by Mars Color Camera on-board ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission.
The image was taken from an altitude of 74500 km from the surface of Mars."

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[vikingmars]

My interpretation, processed, de-noised and de-saturated...
Looks like the Red Planet people dreamed on in the 50's !
And CONGRATULATIONS again to India ! Enjoy...

[Julius]

I'm no expert in image processing but I would think this version of red colour seems more real cos I don't believe the dust clouds to the upper left would be that white as depicted in Ted 's version.

[vikingmars]

Thanks Julius. But what is the "Ted's version", you are referring to, please ?

[Krit]

I suppose he is referring to this version.

[djellison]

I'm no expert in image processing but I would think this version of red colour seems more real cos I don't believe the dust clouds to the upper left would be that white as depicted in Ted 's version.

Check out imagery from Hubble, or the Rosetta OSIRIS flyby imagery - white clouds are the norm. MEX has seen white fog, MGS MOC/WA saw white clouds. The MRO MARCI weather updates regularly show a sluice of white clouds around Mars.

Even amateur ground based astronomers have seen white clouds on Mars. I've seen them thru a tiny telescope with my own eyes.

[Julius]

What about dust clouds resulting from a dust storm? Are they white in colour?

[djellison]

Obviously not - which is why the dust storms visible in every version of this I've seen retain their ochre / butterscotch color.

[elakdawalla]

It's been interesting to see all the different takes on this photo. People seem to agree that the original was too red and saturated, but the corrections have been varied. Here's a roundup of links to processed versions I've seen -- have I missed any?
Original
Ted Stryk
Olivier de Goursac
Judy Schmidt
Fred Calef - with place names
Elisabetta Bonora & Marco Faccin

[Bjorn Jonsson]

Beautiful images so far and congratulations to the Indians. Clearly this mission is going to be the best source ever of global color views of Mars, maybe a bit like a 'super VMC'. Hopefully a 'PDS-like' version of the images will be released in the future to make more accurate processing of these images possible for us here.

The various versions of this image are interesting. Here is a quick-and-dirty version I did by reducing the color saturation a bit. I then corrected the color using Mars' global spectrum as a guide, together with what Mars has looked like to me through a telescope. Planetary color is highly subjective so I really don't know which one of the various versions posted here is the most realistic one. But I agree that the original image is probably too saturated and reddish and probably the blue channel should be brighter, at least in the dark areas (it's remarkably close to 0 in the darkest regions). Here is my version:



The terminator is a bit ugly at lower left. This is a processing artifact; I may do a better version later.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

Here's a roundup of links to processed versions I've seen -- have I missed any?

I also found versions by Don Davis and Mattias Malmer on Facebook.

[mcaplinger]

Hopefully a 'PDS-like' version of the images will be released in the future to make more accurate processing of these images possible for us here.

From http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2014/pdf/2449.pdf "MARS COLOR CAMERA ONBOARD MARS ORBITER MISSION: SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES &
EARTH IMAGING RESULTS", A.S. Arya et al:

Data Product Schema : An MCC image is a Bayer filter mosaic, a color filter array (CFA) for arranging RGB color filters on a square grid of photo sensors. The demosaicing algorithm is employed to reconstruct a full color image. Level-1 product (calibrated data) generation involves detector wise photo response non-uniformity model correction as understood from pre launch laboratory calibration exercises; line/pixel loss correction and tagging the geographic coordinates to each pixel. Level-1, corrected are generated for users. The software
pipeline produces calibrated data to generate minimum Planetary Data System (PDS) compliance product.

[vikingmars]

It's been interesting to see all the different takes on this photo. People seem to agree that the original was too red and saturated, but the corrections have been varied.

Thanks Emily for this interesting compilation.
The somewhat "yellowish" (not pure white) color I found after my processings for the dust clouds on the northern hemisphere is consistent with MARCI team's Mars weather reports : "Regional storm activity picked up in the northern hemisphere, with large storms occurring from Utopia to Arcadia and arcuate-shaped storms following the Acidalia storm track into Chryse"... And in the southern hemisphere, ice crystal clouds appear white indeed. Also, Mars is not a "bright" planet. Thus, I believe my interpretation is a close representation to what the human eyes would see

[Julius]

Only now I realize who vikingmars is! I have 'visions of mars' in my mars books collection..brilliant work!

[wildespace]

A quick Photoshop levels adjustment, using "Enhance Per Channel Contrast" with "Snap Neutral Midtones" box checked:



I think this has resulted in colours very close to the colours of the surface as we have seen from raw Mastcam and MAHLI images.

I remember reading in a few places that the pronouncedly red appearance of Mars when photographed from outside of its atmoshere is due to all the dust suspended in its atmosphere.

[vikingmars]

...as we have seen from raw Mastcam and MAHLI images.
...is due to all the dust suspended in its atmosphere.

Thanks Wildespace : quite good interpretation if I may say !
BUT, please remember that :
1) Mastcam images are in raw format and must be calibrated for their colors ;
2) Dust clouds from space looks indeed yellowish, not white.
3) The color of the planet from space, as you say, is not as yellowish brown as it is seen from the ground...

[fredk]

I think this has resulted in colours very close to the colours of the surface as we have seen from raw Mastcam and MAHLI images.

I remember reading in a few places that the pronouncedly red appearance of Mars when photographed from outside of its atmoshere is due to all the dust suspended in its atmosphere.

Mastcam cameras have a well-known "greenish cast" making the surface look yellowish.

If atmospheric dust reddened the planet, then the limbs should be redder than the centre of the disc, since you look through more dusty air near the limbs. Also the planet should look redder during global duststorms, but I haven't heard of a hue shift during duststorms.

[4throck]

The surface color seen from space suffers the effect of the atmosphere 2 times. Light must come down and then back up.
So any hue will be magnified on full disk images, more so if there's dust or anything that absorbs / reflects light.

The Red Mars from orbit is an accurate rendition of what you would see, the same way as astronauts see the Earth as a blue planet.
If really doesn't compare to what it looks like on the ground .

The limbs are also complicated because you have phase angle there. One thing is reflected light, another absorbed light, just to keep things simple. But you really have to take into account scatting, diffraction, etc, etc. Really not that simple.
And on Mars you have limb hazes and clouds, so a bluish color is to be expected there.

All this meaning that the MOM image is just fine.

[fredk]

Another factor is the seasonal variation in atmospheric dust - some seasons are far dustier than others, even in the absence of duststorms.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

Also comparing Mars's global color with the Curiosity images might not be accurate. In addition to light coming down through the atmosphere and getting reflected back out of it (as pointed out above) and seasonal variations in dust, Mars' global color isn't totally uniform (although color variations aren't big) and the Curiosity images show just one location on the surface.

Regarding Mars' color as seen through a telescope: There is a lot of orange color but I have found it to be orange with a slight pinkish tint as well but this is extremely subjective. Of the various versions of the MOM image I have seen, Don Davis' version is probably closest to what I have seen through a telescope in terms of color (but again, this is subjective).

[djellison]

...... this is subjective

Very very very subjective.

[4th rock from th...]

Completely subjective. And it changes with the telescope and magnification.

It's interesting that Mars seen with the naked eye (point souce) looks quite like Antares (that's why the star is called like that).
That comparison seems to be valid for most people and since a long time.

[fredk]

Completely subjective.

A measurement of spectral irradiance, ie the spectrum of incident light, is completely objective. Of course that's not what people are referring to when talking about telescope views. But it's worth remembering that, in principle, the "colour" of Mars could be measured and reproduced. In practice this would be extremely hard (no display devices exist to reproduce all, or a large part of, a visible spectrum, etc, etc...). The matter of subjectivity of perception is separate from this.

But, getting back to the thread topic, it is easier to objectively discuss differences of colour. Long-term monitoring by MOM may tell us about seasonal variations on a global scale...

[Phil Stooke]

A new MOM image of Mars has been released - see Emily's blog for the link. Here I compare it with the Rosetta flyby image. Lots of small changes to be seen, and much that is the same including the distribution of clouds.

I wanted to add a Hubble view and a Mariner 7 view (incredible changes since Mariner 7) but I don't have time.

Towards upper right, a group of dark markings change very substantially. Look below them, there is a bright-toned curving patch on the surface in the Tartarus Montes area. That is where Mariner 4's first image of Mars was taken in 1965.

Phil

[vikingmars]

My interpretation of the new global Mars image taken by MoM and released by ISRO... Enjoy !

[ugordan]

My attempt at "un-enhancing" the image:

[Hungry4info]

Phobos (animation)
https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/B745972857...10491926854.mp4

[Mr Valiant]

Through my telescope (8" Newtonian) the Mars I have observed is similar to ugordan's
image. Only difference is the Polar Cap always appears very bright, white and sharp edged.

Professional observations of Mars in daylight (sorry I don't have any links) reveal the
planet to be a tan colour, markings brown to dark grey.

Currently my scope is in pieces, gotta get it all together. Miss it.

p.s. Never saw any canals

[vikingmars]

The last image from the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM) showing the huge Tharsis volcanoes with Olympus Mons on the left, close to the terminator... (with colors corrected) Enjoy

[MahFL]

The last image from the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission .....

Do you mean the latest or the last one ?
Did the mission end ?

ADMIN NOTE: MahFl, I think that a quick look to either the mission website, Twitter feed, Facebook page, ISRO's website or any number of space news sites could have answered that question for you. MOM's mission continues as normal. At the very least check/Google before asking a quesion like that please.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

Do you mean the latest or the last one ? Did the mission end ?

It's the latest one (English is not his native language).
These MOM global images are really beautiful.

[vikingmars]

It's the latest one (English is not his native language).
These MOM global images are really beautiful.

Thanks a lot Bjorn ! (and sorry for my English)

[Phil Stooke]

The MOM images of Phobos and Deimos have been highlighted on Emily's blog after appearing in a MOM abstract at LPSC.

Here I have combined two of the images (and masked out the planet itself) to see what might be visible on the surface of Phobos with careful processing. More than a quick look might suggest.

Phil

[elakdawalla]

Dr. Arya provided me with one more file that I didn't use, the attached animated GIF. I thought there were too many dithering-related artifacts for me to make much of it, but I'll bet you can do more with it:

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[Phil Stooke]

I tried to get something out of that, but I couldn't make anything work. Maybe too much was lost in the color indexing for the GIF.

Phil

[rasun]

New photos released:


http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/a...e1-1323435.aspx

[Steve G]

ISRO just released its first scientific findings. Only could find it on Spaceflight101. Lots of new images

http://www.spaceflight101.com/mars-orbiter...on-updates.html

[belleraphon1]

Isro to reveal Mar's methane secret on Thursday 09-24-2015
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sc...ow/49069475.cms

????????????????

[Paolo]

Color camera Mars atlas released: Celebrating one year of Mars Orbiter Mission in Orbit; Release of Mars Atlas
the 35 Mb atlas is here

[Ron Hobbs]

Isro to reveal Mar's methane secret on Thursday 09-24-2015
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sc...ow/49069475.cms

What happened to this revelation? Was this a false alarm?

[belleraphon1]

Would seem so. My information just came from the article I linked to.

[Paolo]

as I understand it, ISRO was only going to release the data. Despite what the title of the article says, no result was going to be announced.
now, have they released the data? are they available somewhere?

[dvandorn]

I read a second-hand report that went something like 'we have detected methane but our results have not been confirmed. Analysis of the data continues.' Something like that.

So, it sounds maybe like someone wanted to make a big announcement before peer review has been completed, and was embargoed from doing so until either issues in the data/analysis are resolved, or until peer review is completed.

-the other Doug

[Explorer1]

Nice report from SpaceFlight 101 (includes the Deimos far side shots!)

http://spaceflight101.com/mom/indias-mars-...ure-challenges/

[Seryddwr]

Just bumping this thread to see if anyone's heard anything from MOM lately - the ISRO page has nothing new, and barring an (admittedly very nice) pic of the north pole on New Year's Eve (https://twitter.com/MarsOrbiter), the Twitter feed has been quiet since last July. Any more news on that supposed methane detection or even imaging campaigns of Deimos, anybody?

[blueaeshna]

Just bumping this thread to see if anyone's heard anything from MOM lately

I just had a search to see if there were anything new regarding MOM's observations of the dust storm currently raging and found this ISRO twitter feed which includes an image:
Click here!

[blueaeshna]

Oops just notice thats way out of date

[Ohsin]

Apologies for bumping this old thread but today ISRO held a one day workshop on Mars Orbiter Mission on occasion of it completing eight years in Martian orbit, giving an overview of whole mission.
https://www.facebook.com/ISRO/videos/5474505689310772/
Yet to go through it all but I\'ll add anything important if found.

Edit:
Per Nandini Harinath (@2hr6min), in April 2022 they faced increasingly long eclipse period and barely survived 6.5 to 7 hrs long ones. In near future there are no long eclipse phases but they barely have any propellant left onboard as 20 kg out of 33 kg of it were spent in Jan 2017 modifying the spacecraft\'s orbit to survive oncoming eclipses back then and ~2.5 kg per year propellant is required for maintenance.

Edit2: Panel discussion with plausible future roadmap.
https://www.facebook.com/ISRO/videos/504033751113966/

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Topic title edited- admin

[Decepticon]

https://www.space.com/india-mars-orbiter-mi...n-loses-contact

[nprev]

Here's the official announcement of EOM.

Congratulations to ISRO and the nation of India on this brilliantly successful mission! We'll miss you, MOM.