NASA Mars HiRISE: Camera reveals Two hundred impacts each year

This image shows one of many fresh impact craters spotted by the UA-led HiRISE camera, orbiting the Red Planet on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since 2006. 

Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech /MSSS /UA

Scientists using images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, have estimated that the planet is bombarded by more than 200 small asteroids or bits of comets per year forming craters at least 12.8 feet (3.9 meters) across.

Researchers have identified 248 new impact sites on parts of the Martian surface in the past decade, using images from the spacecraft to determine when the craters appeared.

The 200-per-year planet-wide estimate is a calculation based on the number found in a systematic survey of a portion of the planet.

The University of Arizona's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, took pictures of the fresh craters at sites where before and after images had been taken.

This combination provided a new way to make direct measurements of the impact rate on Mars and will lead to better age estimates of recent features on Mars, some of which may have been the result of climate change.

"It's exciting to find these new craters right after they form," said Ingrid Daubar of the UA, lead author of the paper published online this month by the journal Icarus.

"It reminds you Mars is an active planet, and we can study processes that are happening today."

These asteroids or comet fragments typically are no more than 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) in diameter.

Space rocks too small to reach the ground on Earth cause craters on Mars because the Red Planet has a much thinner atmosphere.

MRO has been examining Mars with six instruments since 2006. Daubar is an imaging targeting specialist who has been on the HiRISE uplink operation s team from the very beginning.

She is also a graduate student in the UA's department of planetary science and plans on graduating with her doctorate in spring 2014.

Leslie Tamppari

"There are five of us who help plan the images that HiRISE will take over a two-week cycle," she explained.

"We work with science team members across the world to understand their science goals, help select the image targets and compile the commands for the spacecraft and the camera."

"The longevity of this mission is providing wonderful opportunities for investigating changes on Mars," said MRO Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Dimitar Sasselov: How we discovered hundreds of exoplanets

Astronomer Dimitar Sasselov and his colleagues search for exoplanets that may, someday, help us answer centuries-old questions about the origin and existence of biological life elsewhere (and on Earth). How many such planets have they found already? Several hundreds.

About Dimitar Sasselov
Dimitar Sasselov works on uniting the physical and life sciences in the hunt for answers to the question of how life began. Full bio and more links

Unemplyed? hundreds of professional positions available in the space industry

It has come to our attention that there are literally hundreds of professional positions available in the space industry that cannot be filled. At a time when there are millions of people out of work due to the worldwide recession the space industry seems to be booming with projects, contracts and a variety of other activities that require space professionals with some experience in all levels of organization. So, where are these very essential people?

This simple answer is that there are not enough space professionals who have the training and experience needed to do the required work. All of the qualified people that we know are working, and they are working very hard, putting in long hours and making sacrifices to try and get the many funded space projects completed.

What is wrong with this industry? During the 1960s and 70s aerospace companies were notoriously poor employers. One day, thousands of people would be laid off and the next day thousands would be hired. Space professionals had to be mobile and expect to change jobs every two or three years.

They could expect to make good incomes, but not salaries attractive enough to compensate for job insecurity. This was symptomatic of the industry in the early decades of the Space Age. Unfortunately, this image persists and the industry still experiences ups and downs. Other industries are considered to be much more stable.

Consider those professionals who went into the financial and housing industries. They felt very comfortable about job security and they had well-paying positions.

All that ended last year. today, there are fewer college students studying finance, business and marketing and fewer job opportunities for graduates in these fields. However, throughout the last five decades, the majority of space professionals have consistently had well-paying jobs and still have such jobs.

Now that there are high levels of unemployment, where are those young, well-trained engineers and scientists that are so badly needed to build new space systems? They don't exist and we will not be able to fill all of those key positions for several years to come. These people must be attracted to universities that can educate them.

Then they must spend at least four years before receiving their degrees. This is followed by on-the-job training, until each is experienced enough to assume positions of responsibility. Thus, it is easy to see that current positions will not be filled for another five to ten years.

The average age of current space industry professionals has risen steadily since the days of Apollo. today, it is not unusual to see many positions filled with post-65 year old grandparents who have the experience and knowledge needed to compete in a very-competitive international space environment.

Unfortunately, while this situation offers many benefits for those people, it is a make-shift and temporary fix for the industry. The real problem is that the pipeline of future space engineers and innovators is empty. In a few years this may well result in a loss of space leadership. Warning signs are already evident, but no solution is in sight.