再访战神三号的降落地点

2019 June 22

再访战神三号的降落地点
影像提供: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA

说明: 这张由火星勘测轨道飞行器．高解析科学实验相机(HiRISE)所拍摄的特写影像，呈现了阿希达利亚平原南部的风化撞击坑和风积土。不过，虽然在标准HiRISE相机影像里，这个区域带着深浅不一的迷人蓝色，但是在人类的肉眼里，色彩可能会是偏灰或带点晕红。事实上，人类并未真的看过这片区域，除非你把安迪．威尔所撰科幻小说《火星人》，里头的美国航太总署太空人之双眼给算上。这部小说描述虚构的火星战神三号任务太空人马克．华特尼，困在火星之时的探险故事。而任务降落地点的座标，就位在这片经过裁切的HiRISE影像视野之内。作为度量尺标，华特尼所居住的6米直径火星屋，相当于影像中较大型撞击坑直径的十分之一。战神三号虚构降落地点的座标，大约在1997年探路者号(真实任务)降落点的卡尔．萨根记念站北方800公里之处。 (Ares 3 战神三号； Acidalia Planitia 阿希达利亚平原)

Ares 3 Landing Site: The Martian Revisited
Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA

Explanation: This close-up from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera shows weathered craters and windblown deposits in southern Acidalia Planitia. A striking shade of blue in standard HiRISE image colors, to the human eye the area would probably look grey or a little reddish. But human eyes have not gazed across this terrain, unless you count the eyes of NASA astronauts in the scifi novel The Martian by Andy Weir. The novel chronicles the adventures of Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded at the fictional Mars mission Ares 3 landing site corresponding to the coordinates of this cropped HiRISE frame. For scale Watney’s 6-meter-diameter habitat at the site would be about 1/10th the diameter of the large crater. Of course, the Ares 3 landing coordinates are only about 800 kilometers north of the (real life) Carl Sagan Memorial Station, the 1997 Pathfinder landing site.