There was some news recently about the Mars rover "Opportunity" via this article on Space.com which got me curious as to what Opportunity has been up to these days. I never paid quite as much attention to it as I did to Spirit in the early days, but I was in an exploratory mood, so I headed over to NASA's Mars rover site.
The first 3 shots I found on the page devoted to Sol 2543. I'm assuming that wavy stuff is sand (?) but it's so oddly contrasted it almost looks as if someone painted it on.
The last shot - click the image for an enlargement - are actually 2 shots I found on the Sol 2612 page, which I noticed were of 2 sides of the same indentation in the ground and so I spliced them together using that dark rock in the foreground as my guide.
I find the most maddening thing about all the Mars photos is that you want to be there - you want to get up right close and investigate... but can't... ever.
UPDATE: For those interested in Opportunity and its travels, here's a great blog featuring loads of fantastic Martian photos (2D and 3D): The Road to Endeavour.
Interesting....felt the same way back in the early 90s when the stereoscopic images were coming back from the original Mars rover -- it was SOOOOOOOO incredible to be able to see the surface of Mars in 3D -- but know you were unable to ever see it.
ReplyDeleteNice pictures, a weird combination of earth-like familiarity and the shock of the fact that the landscape is totally alien.
ReplyDeleteAlien but not all that alien... especially the black and white images, whereas there's something eerily familiar about them. I think the weirdest aspect for humans to wrap their heads around is the fact that there's never any living entities in these photos. It's hard to imagine an entire world so empty and desolate. And maybe it's just me, but Mars looks haunted... not merely haunting... but literally haunted.
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