Page 48 - ShareSpace's Mars Map Teacher's Guide - Sept 2016

iters

issance Orbiter

HiRise Camera

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is the newest Mars orbiter
NASA has sent to Mars. MRO was launched in August of 2005 and
will arrive at Mars in March of 2006.
MRO, seen here, has the most powerful camera ever sent to Mars, or
any other planet.
The camera, called HiRise, will be able to take pictures of objects a
few feet in size. Cameras on past and current Mars orbiters can
image things no bigger than about 30 feet in size.
Moving on from spacecraft that take pictures of Mars from orbit, we
will now look at spacecraft that take pictures from the surface of
Mars. We call these spacecraft landers and rovers. Ask the students
what they think is the main difference between landers and rovers.
Landers are stationary; they land in one place and do not move from
that spot. Rovers have wheels that allow them to move to different
locations across the surface.