NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: MSIP: Elysium Mons Lava Flow

Image Context:


Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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We began MSIP with 122 students divided into 24 teams. Each team created a proposal and, through the peer review process, seven proposals were selected. Two teams were formed to actually select a site. The Elysium Mons lava flow site was selected by the “Crater” group. The context image showed one large crater and what looked like many smaller craters. That would be an ideal site for the groups. The actual THEMIS image indeed contains one large crater with layered details in the walls, and many smaller craters. One team went on to attempt to find the relative age of the Elysium Mons lava flow by comparing its crater count to the crater count of a known age lava flow on our own Moon.

NASA and Arizona State University’s Mars Education Program is offering students nationwide the opportunity to be involved in authentic Mars research by participating in the Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP). Teams of students in grades 5 through college sophomore level have the opportunity to work with scientists, mission planners and educators on the THEMIS team at ASU’s Mars Space Flight Facility, to image a site on Mars using the THEMIS visible wavelength camera. For more information go to the MSIP website: http://msip.asu.edu.

[Source: ASU THEMIS Science Team]

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University