Mars Express imaged Amazonis Mensa in 2026

Mars Express launched in 2003 and explored Martian landscapes for over two decades. The spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera recorded Amazonis Mensa in an image dated 2026-06-14.

The High Resolution Stereo Camera is an instrument on Mars Express. It produced colour, three-dimensional maps of the Martian surface at unprecedented resolution.

Amazonis Mensa is a flat-topped mountain in an ancient part of Mars. It has a curved, elongated shape and becomes shallower toward the lowlands.

It is one of three mounds, with Gordii Dorsum to the east and Eumenides Dorsum to the west.

The mountain was sculpted by lava, wind, and incoming space rocks. Ancient lava resurfaced parts of the terrain, impact craters are filled with smooth material, and one is almost completely buried. The smooth material is ancient lava flows.

A valley is given as 50 km, and a channel as 20 km. Amazonis Mensa shows signs of wind erosion, with yardang ridges encircling it in 2 groups.

The image is dated 2026-06-14 and is centred at about 3°S/215°E. It comes from HRSC orbit 28328, with a scale of 24 m/pixel.

The German Aerospace Center developed and operated HRSC. Systematic processing of camera data took place at the DLR Institute of Space Research, and a Freie Universität Berlin working group used the data to create the image.

In the image, a large mound dominates the centre-right, and the left half shows a smooth surface with impact craters, a valley, and a water-carved channel. Diagonal lines on either side of Amazonis Mensa show wind erosion. The release includes more HRSC images.

The facts describe a long-running imaging effort: a 2003 launch, over two decades of landscape exploration, and an image dated 2026-06-14. For readers tracking the lunar industry, this shows a decades-long orbital mapping capability with colour, three-dimensional surface data.

The same facts show an institutional chain: the German Aerospace Center developed and operated the camera, the DLR Institute of Space Research processed camera data, and Freie Universität Berlin produced the image.