Fluid_Maybe_6588 t1_jacnold wrote on February 28, 2023 at 2:10 PM

You may be a tad confused. Olympus Mons is on Mars. The space shuttle never orbited Mars. Photos from the MRO and other NASA spacecraft have taken lots of actual photos of Mars. Perhaps your question belongs in Quora ;)

stock-prince-WK OP t1_jad47t2 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 4:04 PM

I’m not confused at all. I understand Mons is on Mars. Which is why I asked if any robots have ever been able to get close ups photos of it.

Do not see how this question can’t be asked in Reddit but ok 👍

EDIT: I see I did mention the space shuttle orbiting. I was wrong about that. Whatever it is that is taking the photos of Mons is what I was referring to.

Fluid_Maybe_6588 t1_jadd7kd wrote on February 28, 2023 at 5:02 PM

Well, you later just said Olympus so then I thought of Greece 😂

demanbmore t1_jacod8h wrote on February 28, 2023 at 2:15 PM

Because it is so huge, you can't really get a close up of OM - you must be far away to take it all in, and at those distances it loses all sense of scale, especially because there's nothing much around to compare it to. It's sort of like trying to take a photo of the Empire State Building from one block away - all you'll get in the frame is the lower floors, or if you tilt the camera upward to get the top in the shot, most of the lower section will be out of the picture. You need to get halfway across the city to get the entire building in frame, and you'll get a sense of size because there's lots of things around to compare it to and because it is much taller than it is wide. OM is really big around - pretty much the size of Arizona - so it just doesn't look that tall compared to how big it is around.

That said, there are many great shots that give some idea of scale (just google "close up of picture of Olympic Mons), and you'll also see side by side comparisons of Everest and OM.

stock-prince-WK OP t1_jad53nv wrote on February 28, 2023 at 4:10 PM

Makes sense thanks for the explanation.

solidcordon t1_jacolqr wrote on February 28, 2023 at 2:17 PM

While it's a spectacular thing, it's not diverse in its' geology or at least not as diverse as the sites selected for robot exploration.

stock-prince-WK OP t1_jad55nj wrote on February 28, 2023 at 4:10 PM

Do you think a robot can even get there if it wanted to ?

solidcordon t1_jad63ob wrote on February 28, 2023 at 4:16 PM

The rovers on mars are quite far from olympus mons. Pretty sure it would take a really long time to get there, like years or decades.

It's technically possible to send a new rover to climb that mountain but the scientific justification for that expenditure is lacking.

Landing on an inclined surface is more difficult / dangerous than a nice flat level area, so the risk may also be a problem.

Mars has killed a few probes. Bear in mind that if anything goes wrong with the multimillion dollar rover at any stage it can lead to politicians cutting funding for future exploration.

solidcordon t1_jadlbax wrote on February 28, 2023 at 5:53 PM

You sparked my curiosity.

This is what I found.

https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1r22wr/will_the_mars_rover_go_anywhere_near_olympus_mons/

stock-prince-WK OP t1_jaeqd6k wrote on February 28, 2023 at 10:15 PM

Thanks for this. So amazing to know what’s out there. Wish I was selected to be apart of that colonial expedition. But unfortunately probably won’t be alive during that time.

Still amazing.

space-ModTeam t1_jacqd50 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 2:30 PM

Hello u/stock-prince-WK, your submission "Do we have an actual close up photo of Olympus Mons ?" has been removed from r/space because:

Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

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