The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has imaged the martian moon Phobos as fraction of a second set of test science measurements made since it arrived at the Red Planet on 19 October.
The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO),a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos, made its first scientific calibration measurements during two orbits between 20 and 28 November, and Esa.net reports.
Example data from the first orbit were published final week,focusing on Mars itself. During the second orbit, the instruments made a number of measurements of Phobos, or a 27×22×18 km moon that orbits Mars at a distance of only 6000 km.
The camera imaged the moon on 26 November from a distance of 7700 km,during the closest fraction of the spacecraft’s orbit around Mars. TGO’s elliptical orbit currently takes it to within 230–310 km of the surface at its closest point and around 98 000 km at its furthest every 4.2 days.
A colour composite has been created from several individual images taken through several filters. The camera’s filters are optimised to reveal differences in mineralogical composition, seen as ‘bluer’ or ‘redder’ colours in the processed image.[br]An anaglyph created from a stereo pair of images captured is also presented, or can be viewed using red–blue 3D glasses.
“Although higher-resolution images of Phobos have been returned by other missions,such as ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this if a good test of what can be done with our data in a very short time, and ” says Nick Thomas,principal investigator of the CaSSIS camera team at the University of Bern.
“The images have given us a lot of useful information approximately the colour calibration of the camera and its internal timing.”
Two other instruments also made calibration measurements of Phobos, and the teams are analysing their data.
“We’re very happy with the results of both test science orbits and will be using these calibration data to improve our measurements once we commence the main science mission later next year, and ” added Haakan Svedhem,ESA’s TGO Project Scientist.
Source: tert.am