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ljk4-1
Here are images of the famous Mariner Crater (Number 11) taken by
Viking 1 Orbiter and Mars Global Surveyor:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/3_18_99_mariner/

And someone please correct me if my memory is faulty, but I think that
this book showed Mariner 6-7 images overlapping Mariner 4 images:

Davies, Merton E., and Bruce Murray, The View from Space, Columbia University Press, New York, 1971
Bob Shaw
The odd thing about that famous Mariner IV crater image is that in fact it *did* show something remarkable. At seven o'clock is to be found the pair of inset craters, and the Viking image reveals what Mariner IV was unable to see: lobate flow features associated with the impacts. Had these only been recognised as impacts into a volatile-rich surface then Mars exploration might have taken a different turn!

Bob Shaw
tedstryk
It also photographed half of Orcas (Orcus?) Patera, but it was mistaken for another impact crater.
Phil Stooke
Another Phil asked:

"Does anyone have access to Viking or Mars Express images that
would match up with those of Mariner 4?"

You might want to try Google Mars. These days we all have access! I've played around with that comparison, it's quite interesting especially for the earlier M4 images. In fact this will form part of my future Mars book.

And ljk4-1 said:

"And someone please correct me if my memory is faulty... "

Well, it probably is faulty! There was no overlap between Mariner 4 and Mariner 6/7 images. And those two authors would not have made a mistake like that. I don't have the book in front of me, but it wouldn't have shown that.

Ted mentioned Orcus Patera. Paterae are usually volcanic craters, but I think everybody believes now that Orcus is really just a giant oblique impact like Schiller on the Moon.

Phil
Bob Shaw
Phil:

It'd have been quite a good idea to overlap the early Mariners imaging swathes, though in reality just hitting the planet with the cameras at all was a triumph!

I wonder what Mariner IV class images of other potential targets would have looked like? If water erosion features had found themselves below the cameras, would they have been visible?

Imagine if Mariner IV had found a river valley...

Bob Shaw
edstrick
In Mariner 4's image #11 (THE crater), a fault graben radial to Tharsis is partly visible cutting across the rim of the large crater. I think it was noted during or after mission image analysis, but minimally commented on. It was visible as some sort of lineation, but what it really was needed more resolution and less noise.
Phil Stooke
Bob, the Mariner 6 and 7 strips did intersect, in Meridiani. But I don't think it would have been useful to have M6 and M7 overlap M4 - better to sample other parts of the planet. M4 would have had no trouble resolving large channels like Ma'adim, or the mouths of Tiu and Ares.

Phil
Bob Shaw
QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Jun 11 2006, 12:53 PM) *
Bob, the Mariner 6 and 7 strips did intersect, in Meridiani. But I don't think it would have been useful to have M6 and M7 overlap M4 - better to sample other parts of the planet. M4 would have had no trouble resolving large channels like Ma'adim, or the mouths of Tiu and Ares.

Phil


Phil:

And, somehow, they all managed to miss the most critical parts! It certainly demonstrates the utility of orbiters versus flyby craft.

Bob Shaw
ljk4-1
QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Jun 10 2006, 08:15 PM) *
And ljk4-1 said:

"And someone please correct me if my memory is faulty... "

Well, it probably is faulty! There was no overlap between Mariner 4 and Mariner 6/7 images. And those two authors would not have made a mistake like that. I don't have the book in front of me, but it wouldn't have shown that.

Ted mentioned Orcus Patera. Paterae are usually volcanic craters, but I think everybody believes now that Orcus is really just a giant oblique impact like Schiller on the Moon.

Phil


Hey, go easy on an old man's memory! I think what I was remembering now was
the Mariner 6 and 7 images overlapping each other.

Here is the Mariner 4 image of Orcus Patera. It caught the end of the feature.
Too bad the image was so poor that it was hard to make out any real details.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/obj...ge/m04_03b.html

And here is a paper debating whether OP is an impact crater or a volcanic feature:

http://www.geology.pomona.edu/research/Fac..._Final_1085.pdf
edstrick
Note that despite the overwhelming impression of historical press coverage and post 1970 "historical" space reporting, Mariner 6 and 7 did see some of the "best" pieces.

Mariner 6 got some relatively clear views of chaotic terrain with the narrow angle camera and clear context from wide angle data that showed the "thermokarst like" (I think they said) collapsed terrain was part of a much larger regional feature extending into the west toward the limb and high-sun-illumination part of the disc.

Mariner 7 showed some sub-parallel ridges and mountainous terrain on the edge of Hellas, and "featureless terrain" (apparently haze-filled atmosphere) on the floor of Hellas, leading the researchers to conclude (on the basis of imperfect evidence) that there were much younger terrains than the cratered terrain.

Mariner 7 showed a complex pitted, cratered, and eroded terrain within the south polar cap, including the first view of the polar layered terrains. They couldn't guess what they were but they were clearly features of great interest.

We didn't see the great channels or the great volcanoes, that was the bad luck of the camera pointings, but we DID get informative glimpses that there was much more than just old cratered terrains.
BruceMoomaw
There was certainly little mention of this at the time.
Bob Shaw
QUOTE (edstrick @ Jun 12 2006, 08:48 AM) *
Note that despite the overwhelming impression of historical press coverage and post 1970 "historical" space reporting, Mariner 6 and 7 did see some of the "best" pieces..


Yes, certainly chaotic terrain was a discovery, and the polar cap images were good too - but it remains the case that the show-stoppers were all missed. What's really frustrating is the way that so many features were almost visible during the far encounter - and then Mars turned it's face away. Olympus Mons, Valles Marineris and the rest are all just visible, but were not understood. Phil Stooke and I have both got old globes of Mars which were based on Mariner 6 & 7 data (and earlier) and on these Olympus Mons is depicted as a giant double crater (the outer aureole was interpreted as a crater wall). Mariner 6 & 7 certainly saw many interesting features, but it was Mariner 9 which breached the floodgates.

Bob Shaw
tedstryk
I think a lot of the reason was that the Tharsis area had long been thought of as the "boring" area - not many pronounced features visiblie in a telescope. The southern hemisphere had much more intricate features.
ljk4-1
The famous August, 1970 issue of National Geographic Magazine discusses
Mars pre-Mariner 9. They make it very clear that - at least for the scientists
they interviewed - Mars was a dull place, mainly craters and some rough
terrain at best.

Amazingly different talk from just a few years earlier, when most of them
assumed Mars was enough like Earth to at least have simple life forms
(lichen and such). Even the infamous canals were thought to at least be
natural water channels.

http://www.aliensonearth.com/catalog/detai...4219.html#image

Here is an image of an old Mars globe with Mariner 6 and 7 photos pasted
across it:

http://beacon.jpl.nasa.gov/Histphotos/hpom/241-267.html
Phil Stooke
Bruce said "There was certainly little mention of this at the time", but actually it was reported as early as the Mariner 6/7 Mission Report MR-6, dated 10/29/69, and in Science, vol. 166, 3 Oct. 1969, p. 62... chaotic terrain was well seen and described. The real problem was the high sun angle which made it harder to interpret. With hindsight small channels can be seen too (frame 6N16). But hindsight is the big help here. If you expect another moon that's what you see.

Phil
peter59
Little bit of history.
Mariner IV - voyage through Earth's magnetosphere.

For the first 16 2/3 hours of flight, the Mariner IV spacecraft was programmed to roll at a rate of about 1 revolution every 30 min. Since the magnetic field of the Earth was known, it was possible to correct the magnetometer data for any bias caused by the small remnant field of the spacecraft itself. The roll calibration insured that later data taken from the instrument in the very small field of interplanetary space could be assigned absolute values.
Click to view attachment
Source : Mariner 4 Master Data Records
Tape : K-0141
5400 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 33 1/3 bps
Time period: 28 november 15:20 - 29 november 10:10, year 1964
Averaging - 12,6 sec per pixel (4 measurements from 1 frame)
Z - axis top
X - axis middle
Y - axis bottom
peter59
Little bit of history.
Mariner IV - significant proton event February 5, 1965

The class 2 solar flare of February 5 started at 17:50 U.T., reached a maximum near 18:10 U.T., and ended near 20:00 U.T. An X-ray burst was detected at 18:09 U.T. Type IV radiation was observed at meter wavelengths at Ford Davies, Texas, from 18:00 U.T. to 19:40 U.T. and at decameter wavelengths at Boulder from 18:10 U.T. to 19:05 U.T. Solar protons and possibly electrons started arriving at Mariner IV at 18:40 U.T. which, at the time , was 3500 Earth radii downstream from Earth. The optical flare consisted of double filaments which slowly drifted apart, first at 6 km/sec and later at 2 km/sec. The flare associated with this event was responsible for the largest proton event of 1964 and 1965.

Proton event detected by Mariner 4's Ion Chamber
Click to view attachment
Diagram description:
Tape : K-0126
2400 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 05 feb 10:00 - 06 feb 19:00, year 1965
Ion Chamber experiment - 2400 measurements extracted
Averaging - three frames per pixel (151,2 sec per pixel)

Click to view attachment
Diagram description:
Tape : K-0126
8000 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 05 feb - 09 feb, year 1965
Ion Chamber experiment - 8000 measurements extracted
Averaging - ten frames per pixel (504 sec per pixel)


Proton event detected by Mariner 4's Geiger-Muller B tube
Click to view attachment
Tapes : K-0125,K-0126
9600 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 05 feb - 10 feb, year 1965
Geiger-Muller B tube - 2400 measurements extracted
Averaging - three measurements from 12 frames per pixel (604,8 sec per pixel)


Proton event detected by Mariner 4's Geiger-Muller/Ion Chamber tubeClick to view attachment
Tapes : K-0125,K-0126
9600 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 05 feb - 10 feb, year 1965
Geiger-Muller/Ion Chamber tube - 2400 measurements extracted
Averaging - three measurements from 12 frames per pixel (604,8 sec per pixel)


Proton event detected by Mariner 4's solid-state detectors
Click to view attachment
Tapes : K-0125,K-0126
19200 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 02 feb - 14 feb, year 1965
Solid-state detectors - 2400 measurements extracted
Averaging - three measurements from 24 frames per pixel (1209,6 sec per pixel)


Proton event detected by Mariner 4's Geiger-Muller A and C tube
Click to view attachment
Tapes : K-0125,K-0126
19200 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 02 feb - 14 feb, year 1965
Geiger-Muller A tube - 2400 measurements extracted
Geiger-Muller C tube - 2400 measurements extracted
Averaging - three measurements from 24 frames per pixel (1209,6 sec per pixel)
peter59
Mariner 4's picture #1 is about 350 km parallel to the limb; from the limb to the lower edge of photograph is about 1290 km.
Image source: NSSDC - 35 mm microfilm
Used scanner: Drum scanner - CROSFIELD CELSIS 6250 CASC

Click to view attachment

Source: NSSDC - 35 mm microfilm
Used scanner: Drum scanner - CROSFIELD CELSIS 6250 CASC
Processing:
Image - scanned, contrasted and blurred
Inset - original digital data with contrast enhancement factor four.

Click to view attachment
peter59
Van Allen belts detected by Mariner 4's Ion Chamber.

The ionization chamber instrument performed nominally through the first 70 days of the mission (through February 5). A profile of radiation intensity was faithfully recorded by the instrument as the spacecraft passed through each of the Van Allen radiation belts on November 28, 1964
Click to view attachment
Source: Mariner 4 Master Data Records (Tape K-0141)
900 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 33 1/3 bps
Time period: 28 nov. 15:20 - 28 nov 18:00, year 1964
Ion Chamber experiment - 900 measurements extracted
No Averaging - 12,6 sec per pixel



Van Allen belts detected by Mariner 4's Geiger-Muller/Ion Chamber tube

The Geiger-Muller tube counts individual particles, the Ion Chamber yield a measurement related to the average energy and amount of radiation. Results from the two intruments can be correlated to yield data on the density of cosmic rays and their energy levels.
Click to view attachment
Source: Mariner 4 Master Data Records (Tape K-0141)
3200 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 33 1/3 bps
Time period: 28 nov. 15:20 - 29 nov 02:30, year 1964
Geiger-Muller/Ion Chamber tube - 800 measurements extracted
No Averaging - 50,4 sec per pixel (2 measurements from 8 frames)
robspace54
For those who were born after 1970, you have to realize what an incredible undertaking that Mariner IV was. I remember very vidily the grainy pictures appearing in the local paper, and it was just WOW! Craters on another world, that didn't look that different, perhaps, than the Moon.

In the middle 1960s CBS had a program named "Spectrum" every Sunday night (I think at 7 PM) hosted by Walter Cronkite. The program on Mariner IV was incredible (and we watched it on our black and white RCA TV). The program (was it 30 minutes long?) covered the mission, spacecraft and the findings.

The info about the transmission power from Mars to Earth was 8 1/3 watts just blew my mind away. The Mariner IV mission had a huge influence on me, and the whole Space Race led to me becoming an engineer. Those 22 grainy smeary pictures changed more lives than my own...

Rob
peter59
QUOTE (robspace54 @ Jan 18 2008, 09:44 PM) *
Those 22 grainy smeary pictures changed more lives than my own...

Rob


Of course you are right.

Picture #3
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Picture #5
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Picture #7
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Picture #8
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Picture #9
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Picture #10
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Picture #11
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Picture #12
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Picture #13
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Picture #14
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Picture #15
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Paolo
wow! I really like those context images!
dvandorn
Yes -- I never realized before that one of the Mariner IV images included one of the major outflow channels, but at such a resolution and sun angle as to be unrecognizable for what it was.

-the other Doug
JRehling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gl_iRDdIUc

Part one of a short film on Mariner 4. Link to part two should appear somewhere on the page.
peter59
Today is the 43 anniversary of the first Mars flyby.

I would like propose you a very interesting article written by Doug Rickard.
Memoirs of a space engineer.

Doug Rickard was a very unusual man, with very unusual biography. Doug worked on the British Atomic Weapons Tests at Maralinga in South Australia in the late 1950s, and was victim of incident known as "Maralinga Cobalt 60 incident". I emailed with him a few times maybe eight years ago.
Alan Stern
QUOTE (peter59 @ Jul 14 2008, 09:20 AM) *
Today is the 43 anniversary of the first Mars flyby.

I would like propose you a very interesting article written by Doug Rickard.
Memoirs of a space engineer.

Doug Rickard was a very unusual man, with very unusual biography. Doug worked on the British Atomic Weapons Tests at Maralinga in South Australia in the late 1950s, and was victim of incident known as "Maralinga Cobalt 60 incident". I emailed with him a few times maybe eight years ago.



And on precisely the 50th anniversary of the Mariner IV flyby, New Horizons will reach Pluto.
Our team has already begun compiling a list of Mariner IV alums to invite to see the first reconnaissance
of the ninth planet at the edge of the classical planetary system.

Alan Stern
nprev
Alan, please forgive me, but I really do have to ask: Is this purely a coincidence, or a lucky but hoped-for hit based on NH's launch date? I know that nobody would ever waste fuel trying to make this really remarkable anniversary happen.
volcanopele
Could be just as much of as coincidence as January 14/15 being a popular times for major encounters/landings/flybys lately...
mchan
The NH Pluto / Mariner 4 Mars flyby connection was pointed out by one of the UMSF folks here, and Alan had thought that was just great (a coincidence). This was after the Pluto flyby date was firmed up after launch.
Alan Stern
QUOTE (nprev @ Jul 15 2008, 03:32 AM) *
Alan, please forgive me, but I really do have to ask: Is this purely a coincidence, or a lucky but hoped-for hit based on NH's launch date? I know that nobody would ever waste fuel trying to make this really remarkable anniversary happen.



Nprev-

It's just a coincidence I recognized a few years ago, but I like it-- it nicely symbolizes the bookend nature of NH.

-Alan
edstrick
Viking 1 was sort of trying to land on July 4, 1976 <200th anniv of signing of the Declaration of Independence>, but landing site certification blew that date, so they had to settle for the anniversary of the first manned moon landing, instead.

Both dates were available within the "optimum" timeline and didn't take any fudging to try to achieve.
tedstryk
I have put together a little commemorative compilation of the Mariner 4 images, along with the nearest decent context image of the correct hemisphere in the International Mars Patrol collection in the lower right hand corner.

Click to view attachment

I have also attached a fused mosaic of frames 1-4 with the small gap filled using interpolation and false noise to give it an even texture. The other sets are too far away from each other for that to work.

Click to view attachment
Ron Hobbs
I would like to note that today is the 45th anniversary of the first close-up pictures from Mars.

Five more years and we will celebrate the 50th anniversary ...

by looking at pictures from Pluto!

wheel.gif
peter59
Click to view attachment
I'm looking for Mariner IV televison data tabular display. Twenty-eight pages of this format type were required for each picture. Reward is serious (except fame and glory) for the first complete picture (if it still exists).
ZLD
May be available from the NSSDC if you contact them. There's a page for Mariner 4 Master Data Records and Mariner 4 MDL Reacquisition Data on CD-WO. Not sure if either would include the full playback data or if any of them would be included but far as I can find, there is nothing available on their FTP regarding the raw data. Here are all of the raw converted photos though.
Phil Stooke
There was a long discussion of this deeper back in this section if you go looking. One problem about NSSDC is that the archive medium was film - negatives, in other words, not digital or paper.

Phil
tedstryk
I have tried multiple places (including the NSSDC), and I am starting to believe that the volume doesn't exist.
djellison
I think this - http://mm04.nasaimages.org/MediaManager/sr...mp;profileid=21 - or something VERY similar to it is in the hall of the Media Relations offices at JPL. I'll gigapan it one day - you can read every single number off it.
ZLD
That's pretty neat. So they took all the matrices and hand colored each number basically?
djellison
They bracketed the values into big ranges - and each range got a different color
Phil Stooke
That was in the good old days when people used to cut and paste with scissors and glue.

Phil
peter59
I just found an old article in LIFE MAGAZINE (23 Jul 1965) containing a block of 6,000 digits.
Click to view attachment
After zooming the digits can be easily read.
Click to view attachment
I know that the transmission block consists of 1,281 + (-) 1 binary digits, so I should have no problem with the analysis of these data. Probably I should to recover nearly complete five lines of the image # 1. This will be good fun. I think that the results are today.
peter59
It was not very difficult.
Numerical data, lines 154 -158.
Click to view attachment
The same in graphically form. Contrast x 6, size x 5.
Click to view attachment
Data included in the scanned image.
Click to view attachment
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
Paolo
nice find Peter!
lyford
Wow, nice work! That is a holiday treat!
4th rock from the sun
Well, the numbers are at mostly visible on this high resolution photo of the famous "paint by numbers" Mariner 4 first image:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14033

You need to open the full-res jpg to be able to read the numbers.
Does anyone feel like typing them?
SteveM
The task would not be straightforward since the numbers are often faded or marked over. As a feasibility test, here's the red channel (which ignores most of the reddish coloring) of a small section of the image enhanced to bring out the numbers.
Click to view attachment

Anyone brave enough to try typing them all in would have several ways to cope with the dropouts.
1) Guestimate the value from the color coding, which provides a rough numerical value (perhaps aided by the surrounding values)
2) Look for the original document and try to read that (where is it. JPL perhaps?)
3) Guestimate the value it from the analog video image, which is better than nothing.

This seems like a lot of effort, but the restored digital image would be a "unique historical artifact" FWIW.

djellison
It's in the hall of the Education and Comms offices at JPL.

I gigapanned it a few months ago - it didn't stitch as well as Dan Goods' stitch that's on the photojournal, but you might be able to bring out more numbers.

http://gigapan.org/gigapans/68749/

peter59
QUOTE (SteveM @ Apr 18 2011, 10:56 PM) *
This seems like a lot of effort, but the restored digital image would be a "unique historical artifact" FWIW.

This is already done.
I intended to publish it on the anniversary.
http://www.petermasek.republika.pl/M04March2011.zip
Enjoy ! wink.gif
Bjorn Jonsson
Wow!! This is a major improvement in quality over the old printed/scanned version. This is also a nice example of why I wish I could get my hands on the Pioneer 10 & 11 digital data (sadly that doesn't seem likely to happen).
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