astronomy

Mars Orbiter Camera

Mars Orbiter Camera is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mars Orbiter Camera rather than just read about it. In short: The Mars Orbiter Camera and Mars Observer Camera (MOC) were scientific instruments on board the Mars Observer and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The camera was built by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) for NASA and the cost of the whole MOC scientific investigation project was about US$44 million, higher than anticipated in the budget.

Key takeaways

Mars Orbiter Camera belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mars Orbiter Camera to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mars Orbiter Camera from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Mars Orbiter Camera and Mars Observer Camera (MOC) were scientific instruments on board the Mars Observer and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The camera was built by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) for NASA and the cost of the whole MOC scientific investigation project was about US$44 million, higher than anticipated in the budget.

Design

Originally named Mars Observer Camera, it was selected by NASA in 1986 for the Mars Observer mission, but it returned only three images of planet Mars before the loss of the spacecraft in 1993. A second camera of the same specifications, renamed to Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), was built (with assistance by California Institute of Technology) and launched on board the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft in 1996. The camera returned 243,668 images while in orbit around Mars, before the loss of the MGS spacecraft in 2006. Mars Orbiter Camera was operated by its manufacturer, Malin Space Science Systems, from its facilities in San Diego, California. The scientific instrument consisted of three elements: a black-and-white narrow-angle camera with a spatial resolution of 1.4 metres per pixel (from an altitude of 378 km), and two pushbroom wide-angle cameras (one red, the other blue) with resolution capabilities spanning 230 m per pixel to 7.5 km/pixel. The narrow-angle camera provided 97,097 (roughly 40%) of the 243,668 images returned by Mars Orbiter Camera. The narrow-angle camera was placed inside an 80 cm-long cylinder with a diameter of 40 cm, and the two wide-angle cameras were attached above the cylinder's front area. All cameras were based on CCD technology and were supported by state-of-the-art 1980s electronics, including a 32-bit radiation-hardened 10 MHz processor (capable of 1 million instructions per second) and 12 MB of DRAM memory buffer. In addition to taking images, the MOC instrument's 12 MB memory buffer serviced the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Relay antenna as temporary data storage for communications between Earth and landed spacecraft on Mars. For example, more than 7.6 terabits of data were transferred to and from the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity). The camera also enabled NASA scientists to choose suitable landing sites for other exploration missions.

Images

See also Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (A telescopic imager on the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto) MOC Public Targeting Program

Malin also built and operated other cameras for NASA, including:

Context (CTX) Camera also for the MRO spacecraft JunoCam, on board the Juno spacecraft, deployed in Jupiter orbit in 2016 Mars Color Imager for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mars Orbiter Camera

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mars Orbiter Camera claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mars Orbiter Camera before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mars Orbiter Camera ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mars Orbiter Camera

In research: Mars Orbiter Camera appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mars Orbiter Camera in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mars Orbiter Camera is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Mars Global Surveyor, Mars imagers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mars Orbiter Camera outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mars Orbiter Camera in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mars Orbiter Camera means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mars Orbiter Camera out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mars Orbiter Camera in simple terms?

Why does Mars Orbiter Camera matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mars Orbiter Camera?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mars Orbiter Camera.