Martian Sand Ripples Featured Cover of Mars Quarterly

April 02, 2009

The digital art of Jim Plaxco has been selected as the cover art for the Spring 2009 issue of The Mars Quarterly. The picture, Martian Sand Ripples, is a depiction of sand ripples on the surface of Mars.

“Selection of my art for the cover is a special honor as I've been a long time supporter of the goals of the Mars Society. In fact, it was working with Viking and Mars Global Surveyor imaging data that kept me active in digital image processing for a number of years using my skills to created educational presentations about Mars.”

“With respect to this image, I created it by first acquiring the individual raw data frames taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's Left Panoramic Camera. Each frame was taken using a different filter. From these frames I created a false color image that I used as a basis for the creation of Martian Sand Ripples.”

The Spring 2009 issue of The Mars Quarterly contains articles by Dr. Chris McKay, of NASA Ames; an interview with Dr. Steve Squyres; an adaptation of the speech given by Miles O'Brien, formerly of CNN, to the scientists of JPL in January 2009; and an Op/Ed by Michael Simpson, President of the International Space University.

While The Mars Quarterly is a membership benefit for members of The Mars Society, an abridged preview version is available on the web at http://www.marssociety.org/portal/c/TMQ/Volume1Issue2Preview/

For further information and/or interviews, contact Jim Plaxco.