Regular VMC contributor Mike Malaska has submitted another oustanding image edit for the Mars Webcam blog, shown above. His work is based on an image of the North Pole of Mars from a VMC observation on the 30th September. The polar cap of the planet can just be seen in the middle of this image, with low sunlight glinting off the patches of snow and ice surrounding it. As Earth heads into Northern hemisphere autumn, Mars is also in Northern autumn at the moment and this view captures beautifully the impression of low sunlight in the Northern parts of Mars, with ice and snow signalling the coming winter.

Mike wrote the following to us about his work on this image:

The main reason I initially got excited about this image was (1) North Pole of Mars and (2) taken at apoapsis (maximum height above Mars, about 10,000 km) of the Mars Express orbit. I was hoping for several pictures with very little change that could be used to make a 'super-resolution' image. Unfortunately, there was a 1-pixel-per-image rotation counter-clockwise (in this orientation) of the surface that messed up my plans.

This image was created by making an average of several images: Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16, then Gaussian blurring this by 1 pixel to make a smooth color background. Next, Image No. 12 was used as a luminosity layer. It was also used as a HiPass layer to enhance subtle details. Finally it was blended with some of the original Image No. 12. Contrast enhancement and rotation (to put the North Pole at the top) and cropping gave the final image.

As always, excellent work Mike — and thank you for the submission and for showing us the beauty of Mars.

We'd love to see what other visitors can make of VMC images, too — just check out the Help us with VMC link at right to get started! -- Thomas

New images have been posted to the image database. These images are from the VMC observation on 15 October 2010, for more details on this observation hit the "Full Story" link below. To access the images click the link below. Also you can access the Celestia file to see where the images were captured and access the raw data in the zip file (for more details see Help us with the VMC)

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Our colleague Thomas Ormston, who leads VMC activities for the Mars Express team here at ESOC, recently presented a paper at the 61st International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Prague, Czech Republic.

The paper, "An Ordinary Camera In An Extraordinary Location: Outreach With The Mars Webcam," covered the history of the VMC project and provided details on camera operations and our results to date in publishing results to this blog. It also described the outreach successes of the project, highlighted some of the contributions from the Mars Webcam community, explained opportunities to use and work with the Mars Webcam and plans for future camera activities.

The paper was the product of a joint effort and made use of input from the entire Mars Express team (thanks guys!) - it's an excellent review of VMC activities to date. You can access a copy in SlideShare.net or click on 'Full story' below.

We'd like to thank everyone who attended Thomas' presentation at IAC and, in particular, we'd like to give a big shout out to Beth Beck, who posted the following note in her blog:

"My fav presentation was European Space Agency's Mars WebCam project. You'll just have to check it out. The best example of 'participatory exploration' that I've seen. They turned an unused mission camera back on to take photos of Mars. They offer the data to the public to process. The Mars WebCam folks post the "processed" images back on their site. Quite wonderful. They've created an amazing, enthusiastic community of Mars-watchers, who participate in the mission voluntarily with hundreds of hours of processing time to their credit."

Thanks, Beth, for your kind words! -- Daniel

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New images have been posted to the image database. These images are from the VMC observation on 30 September 2010, for more details on this observation hit the "Full Story" link below. To access the images click the link below. Also you can access the Celestia file to see where the images were captured and access the raw data in the zip file (for more details see Help us with the VMC)

 Full story »

The VMC team at ESOC were very happy to learn that they had been given a special mention from the Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement 2010. It is awarded to individuals or groups who have developed innovative practices in planetary science communication and whose efforts have significantly contributed to a wider public engagement with planetary science. The main award was won by Dr Jean Lilensten of the Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble for his long standing work magic of planetary aurorae with school children and members of the public across Europe, using his ‘planeterrella’ experiment.

The VMC team are proud and excited to receive this terrific special mention from an organisation that lies at the heart of planetary science in Europe. The testimonies that go with the special mention reflect exactly what we hope to achieve with the Mars Webcam and it is gratifying to receive this recognition for the project.  

Thomas Ormston (left), Mars Express Spacecraft Operations Engineer,
Dr. Thierry Fouchet (middle), Outreach Coordinator for Europlanet,
Dr Olivier Witasse, ESA's Project Scientist for Mars Express 

The Mars Webcam project aims to bring the excitement and interest of planetary exploration direct to educational institutions and the public by making you our scientists and investigators. We often say VMC is "an ordinary camera in an extraordinary location," but the results submitted to our blog by you show just how extraordinary the results from the VMC can be, too.

The whole VMC team thanks the Europlanet Outreach Steering Committee for awarding us this special mention. We also would like to thank all those within ESA who have supported the project. Of course you - the visitors and contributors to the VMC blog - share this accolade with us, since it has been your support that makes the Mars Webcam a success! 

A presentation on the VMC and the Mars Webcam Blog (including sincere thanks from the whole VMC team to the EPSC folks) was given at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome today. Here we took the chance to explain how much of a success VMC has been and how the participation of the general public in the exploration of Mars is something that helps bring the data from Mars alive.

Please do keep visiting the blog and submitting your interpretations of VMC images and help keep the project as dynamic and interesting as it has always been. More information is available at the “Help us with VMC” link on the right. -- Thomas