Getting the Picture

摘要

Of the 19,000 or so pictures that the Mars Global Surveyor has returned since it began orbiting Mars two years ago, Mike Malin has a particular favorite. It was taken on the spacecraft's 20th orbit: Tuesday, October 14, 1997, 13:20 Universal Time. "It was a mistake," recalls Malin. The camera had been sent a faulty command, so the exposure times were off. Still, what came back was a picture of a flat region called Elysium, with boulders just visible on the surface. That in itself was unremarkable, considering that the Viking landers had photographed plenty of rocks strewn about the red plains of Mars more than 20 years earlier. But for geologist and camera designer Malin, it was a vindication.