[X] My Assistant

[pioneer]

I heard this mission has an extremely high-resolution camera, but don't MGS and Mars Express as well? I know it also has some kind of radar sounder to search for water beneath the surface, but doesn't Mars Express have something like that too? The only instrument I found that hasn't been flown before is one for measuring climate that I think was lost on the Mars Climate Orbiter.

[djellison]

Well - yes - MGS and MEX have high res cameras - 1.5 - 2m/pixel.

MRO has a resolution of 0.3m/pixel - i.e. for every pixel that Global Surveyor can image - MRO will have 25 pixels.

You can do a lot more science with that.

There's a great presentation you should watch on the whole mission that explains a lot of the instruments and how they compliment one another and the other orbiting assets, and landers - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures/oct04.cfm

Doug