Images

Astronauts descending into Meteor Crater in Winslow Arizona. Terrestrial analogs like Meteor Crater provide excellent training grounds for planetary exploration.

USGS Field Test Support Unit (left to right) Dick Wiser, John Hendricks, Bill Tinnin and Putty Mills with the Explorer, a lunar rover vehicle simulator at Cinder Lake Crater Field east of Flagstaff, December 1968. 

High-spatial-resolution airborne images of the Tern Lake area from 1994, 2006, and 2017. The area of bright pixels identified in the Landsat-8 thermal infrared image corresponds to a newly emerging area of warm ground and tree kills about 32,500 m² (8 acres, or 4 soccer fields) in area.

Landsat-8 nighttime thermal infrared image from April 2017 showing the Tern Lake area. In Yellowstone, temperatures are extremely cold at night in the winter, and most lakes are frozen (dark pixels). West Tern Lake seems to be thawing here - perhaps it receives some thermal waters from nearby hot springs.

Map of thermal areas in Yellowstone National Park. Most of Yellowstone's more than 10,000 thermal features are clustered together into about 120 distinct thermal areas (shown in red). Lakes are blue. The Yellowstone Caldera is solid black and the resurgent domes are dotted black. Roads are yellow.

The Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this mosaic as it explored the "clay-bearing unit" on Feb. 3, 2019 (Sol 2309). This landscape includes the rocky landmark nicknamed "Knockfarril Hill" (center right) and the edge of Vera Rubin Ridge, which runs along the top of the scene.

Photograph of Marc Hunter, to be used for USGS Astrogeology Science Center staff profile.

In preperation for Apollo 15, David Scott and James Irwin trained with a training version of the Lunar Rover known as the "Grover". Apollo 15 was the first mission to bring a rover. This allowed the astronauts to cover a larger distance and explore a larger area. 

USGS SIM 3389: Geologic map of the Nepenthes Planum Region, Mars

By James A. Skinner and Kenneth L. Tanaka

Map and associated documents available from the USGS Publications Warehouse: https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3389

Active barchan dune at Grand Falls Dune Field. Dark grains to the left of the slipface are volcanic and derived from local cinder cones from the San Francisco volcanic field, the lighter-colored tan sand is sourced from the Little Colorado River. 

This is a photo of a pink sand dune in Utah.

This HiRISE image cutout shows Recurring Slope Lineae in Tivat crater on Mars in enhanced color. The narrow, dark flows descend downhill (towards the upper left). Analysis shows that the flows all end at approximately the same slope, which is similar to the angle of repose for sand.

Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Published: October 20, 2017

The near side of Earth's Moon, as seen based on data from cameras aboard NASA's robotic Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

This orthographic projection shows dwarf planet Ceres as seen by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. The projection is centered on Occator Crater, home to the brightest area on Ceres. Occator is centered at 20 degrees north latitude, 239 degrees east longitude.

USGS SIM 3356: Geologic map of Meridiani Planum, Mars

By: Brian M. Hynek and Gaetano Di Achille

Map and associated data available from the USGS Publications Warehouse: https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3356

USGS and Oregon State University scientists deploying electromagnetic sensors in the field.

Infrared mosaic image of Mars Gale crater by the Thermal Emission Imaging Spectrometer (THEMIS) of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and Arizona State University. The Mars Science Laboratory is scheduled to land in Gale crater Aug. 5, 2012.

Attendees of the 2nd International Planetary Caves Conference pose for a photo. Participants include a local high-school robotics team, called the CocoNuts.

During the 2nd International Planetary Caves Conference, attendees explored Lava River cave, located near Flagstaff, Arizona. This photo was taken using time-lapse photography and the light streak is the result of person walking with a headlamp.

During the 2nd International Planetary Caves Conference, attendees explored a 1.6-kilometer-long lava tube cave, northwest of Flagstaff, Arizona.