USATODAY.com – Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sends test images
The views from MRO’s High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which has called the most powerful camera ever sent to Red Planet, reached Earth early Friday.
“The quality of the images is fantastic!” HiRISE principal investigator Alfred McEwen, of the University of Arizona, told SPACE.com. “This demonstrates that both the HiRISE camera and the spacecraft pointing performed superbly.”
MRO launched on Aug. 12 of last year. It reached Mars and began orbiting the red planet on March 10.
The orbiter is hauling an array of science instruments, including a radar device designed to probe the subsurface of Mars for layers of ice, rock and, perhaps, liquid water that might be accessible from the surface.
See article for more detial and small sample images of the surface.