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Mars radar opens up a planet’s third dimension

esa.int — ESA’s Mars Express radar sounder, MARSIS, has looked beneath the martian surface and opened up the third dimension for planetary exploration. The technique’s success is prompting scientists to think of all the other places in the Solar System where they would like to use radar sounders.

Who dugg this? Made popular Apr 18, 2008

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  • FeloniusMonkey, on 04/18/2008, -1/+11JEFF GOLDBLUM: Just as I suspected-- more red dirt.
  • travis1982, on 04/18/2008, -0/+8martian buried treasure
  • inactive, on 04/18/2008, -0/+7Seismic profiling with 1000s of times more resolution has been routinely used world wide for over 30 years.
    http://www.litho.ucalgary.ca/atlas/seismic.html
    The Mars results are unique and marvelous for a spacecraft.
  • Ganja420, on 04/18/2008, -0/+7No alien bunkers? buried for inaccuracy
  • ByteGuerilla, on 04/18/2008, -0/+5Damn edit timer cut me off.

    Highlight of the projects already launched:
    -World's most advanced telecommunications satellite;
    -World's first space observatory that can simultaneously observe gamma, X-ray, and visible light;
    -World's largest and most complex environmental satellite.

    They're also working on the replacement to Hubble with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (they worked on Hubble with NASA too), an astrometry satellite and a satellite for studying the Cosmic Microwave Background.

    They also made the big bin that is currently attached to the ISS. Apparently (anecdotal, third-hand information coming up) the craft had to 'catch' the ISS as it came round Earth, and then dock with it with an error margin of less than two centimetres, making it the most accurately-automated spacecraft so far.
  • dandonia, on 04/18/2008, -0/+4I read dimension and thought of something completely different.
  • ByteGuerilla, on 04/18/2008, -0/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_projects_of_t ...
  • Inverno, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1Maybe I've been living under a rock, but is this the first pioneering the ESA has done? I'm all for more agencies doing more things, I just don't remember the ESA leading the way in something before.
  • erkokite, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1EDIT:
    oops, I meant SMART 1, which was a lunar probe that used an ion engine.
  • edwartica, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1maybe those crazy scientists will figure out that there really IS a face on mars! Its not just a low rez photo!
  • erkokite, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1They made the Deep Space 1 probe which pioneered the use of the ion engine.
  • Ronian12, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1I'm still waiting for the Year 3000 Mars Terraforming Project to start up.
  • erkokite, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1Hey, this isn't abovetopsecret.com here...
  • edwartica, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1Sure, I'll agree opening up a 4th dimension would not be boring either, but this is pretty fascinating.
  • edwartica, on 04/18/2008, -1/+1Suddenly there would be a huge surge into exploring mars.
  • 04STi400hp, on 04/18/2008, -2/+1The technology is awesome, Im glad we are advanced enough to produce something like this. BUT.... why can't we use this kind of stuff at home? I'm sure it would be able to spot out oil reserves easily.
  • Nedlog23, on 04/18/2008, -2/+1Oil on Mars? That would piss off the Arabs.
  • soupnrc, on 04/18/2008, -6/+4BORING.

    Call me back when it opens up a 4th dimension.

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