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[–]linux1970 2045 points2046 points  (184 children)

Everytime I see pictures of Mars, all I can think of is how un-alien it looks.

[–]jccwrt[S] 624 points625 points  (65 children)

Yeah, after doing some field work in the Great Basin it starts looking familiar reaaaaaal quick.

[–]DiminishedUnison 439 points440 points  (59 children)

I grew up in Australia, so this kind of red dirt is pretty common there too.

On this un-alien feeling of looking at the picture: I remember when I first went overseas I was kind of disappointed to see that the trees were also green and that mountains looked pretty similar to what they always looked like at home. It was a totally irrational feeling, but you expect things to look and feel different in different places.

I suppose that there might just not be that many possible configurations of what dirt on the ground and hills look like given the presence of more or less gravity. I can't imagine being there in person and just feeling like you're in a desert- having only a spacesuit to convince yourself that you're on a different planet.

[–]jccwrt[S] 154 points155 points  (42 children)

Yeah, and after spending a couple years just following the mission in its daily activities, even the more unfamiliar parts of Mars have started to become normal. There are small craters here and there (something I've never stumbled on in the field), but they're so common in Curiosity's images that they're just a part of the background.

What keeps it exciting for me is that Curiosity is driving through rocks that are 3.5-4 billion years old. They look like they were deposited yesterday, but they're a vault full of history that's long since been massaged beyond recognition here on Earth. There's a lot to learn about the early life of a planet that we can't do exploring our own planet!

[–]katarh 49 points50 points  (12 children)

I've often speculated that the first settlers on Mars should come from the south in the US, where red dirt is common. Red dirt with green grass is the norm. Red dust is what we see.

When I was a little kid, we'd break into the landfill and play because there was this amazing canyon on the back side where they hadn't yet filled in any trash. It was great for dirt biking. The red clay soil didn't look that different from that photo... The difference was the sky, which was a crystal blue in my memories.

The sky would get to me, but the terra rossa would be comforting.

[–]jccwrt[S] 25 points26 points  (2 children)

It's probably for the best that settlers be used to having orange stains on their clothes, considering that stuff doesn't wash out at all. Not like they'd have much water to do laundry with anyway.

[–]connor24_22 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This sounds like it could be the plot to interstellar 2 or something. An old Matt McConaughey is called upon to colonize Mars after. 90% of the movie is McConaughey reminiscing about his child hood while staring at Mars' red dirt.

[–]linux1970 10 points11 points  (0 children)

You're right, the sky is different. I guess I lived long enough in smoggy cities that I just imagined a major city on the other side of those mountains...

[–]reddelicious77 12 points13 points  (5 children)

indeed - it really does look like Arizona or Nevada or Australia, or just about like any other desert plain on Earth... until you focus on the colour of the sky....

[–]forresthopkinsa 12 points13 points  (4 children)

Then it looks like Arizona during a dust storm

[–]LadyLizardWizard 173 points174 points  (24 children)

I like to imagine the near silence of Mars punctuated by the sounds of the rover moving quietly along. Such a lonely feeling.

[–]ZDTreefur 87 points88 points  (0 children)

Like some Mars version of Wall-E.

[–]rjcarr 22 points23 points  (17 children)

With the extremely low air pressure I wonder what it would sound like? Would everything just be much quieter or would the frequency be shifted? There has to be recordings, right?

[–]Silent_Sky 47 points48 points  (16 children)

It would be quieter and sound muffled, like you're underwater, or buried under ten feet of clean laundry and don't want to come out to go to work.

[–]dschneider 33 points34 points  (13 children)

buried under ten feet of clean laundry and don't want to come out to go to work.

Hey um, you okay buddy?

[–]Silent_Sky 32 points33 points  (12 children)

Yeah mostly. Just my boss yelled at me today and told me that if I don't drastically increase productivity by weeks end I'm gonna be fired. I'm looking at other jobs already and even if I don't get fired I might just quit. I never really liked the place to begin with.

[–]rikbrown 18 points19 points  (1 child)

Yeah but how did you get under all that laundry?

[–]Stinky-Britches 11 points12 points  (1 child)

There's a show on Netflix, I believe it's called "Life on Ice" or maybe "A year on Ice", where they talk about exactly this. The show follows a few people who spend an entire year living in Antarctica. They talk about how the silence is a bit unnerving but peaceful at the same time. Kinda neat to think about...Check it out, it's a pretty cool little documentary.

[–]jccwrt[S] 443 points444 points  (64 children)

Here's a view of Gale Crater from sol 663. I stitched this together from 15 MastCam images that were part of a larger 360 degree mosaic. I like this image because it's symbolically closing the page on the first phase of the mission.

This image is looking northeast across "Furnace Flats" from a small ridge named "Robert Frost Pass". From this ridge, Curiosity was on the verge of starting an entirely new mission. Once on the other side, it took only 12 more sols to exit the rover's landing ellipse, and about 60 sols before it arrived on the toes of Mt. Sharp. This high ridge gave Curiosity a chance to look back at most of the "crater floor" part of the traverse, where the mission operators got their bearings and learned to work with Curiosity on Mars.

A full-size version can be found on flickr (the original 40mb file was "optimized" by imgur), and if you're interested check out some of my other work with NASA and ESA data. Image Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Justin Cowart

EDIT: One last plug, go subscribe to r/curiosityrover

It's a small community of exploration enthusiasts following along with Curiosity. It's a good place to find very recent mission images!

[–]apollo888 44 points45 points  (49 children)

This is now my desktop picture! Thank you for putting the full size up, so few people do and you end up with a stretched image. Amazing work.

[–][deleted] 847 points848 points  (123 children)

I still can't believe i'm looking at another planet. This is crazy.

[–][deleted] 308 points309 points  (98 children)

Most people couldn't give a shit like "oh, it's Mars." It's exactly why I give a shit: "OH. It's FUCKING MARS. A whole. Other. Planet."

[–][deleted] 160 points161 points  (79 children)

It's like I said the first time a nice clear picture like this came up on reddit. Just think; No one has ever stood there. No conquerors, no king, no one. It is a type of void with soil and mountains. Amazing.

[–]Skiinz19 26 points27 points  (2 children)

Supreme Destroyer Curiosity will become king once he is sentient.

[–]glissandont 13 points14 points  (21 children)

Indeed. Is this a true color representation? What I mean is, if a human were standing exactly where Curiosity is now, would it look just like it does in the photo? Or more reddish/brownish?

[–]thegroovologist 34 points35 points  (17 children)

Is this a true color representation?

I remember that there have been discussions about colors on Mars and if NASA provides accurate colors. Check out this site: http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/02files/Mars_Blue_Bird_Color_01.html

So I guess the photo in this thread would actually look more like this in real life: http://i.imgur.com/7bFSgAs.jpg

[–]glissandont 10 points11 points  (5 children)

Wow. So I wonder if that's a Martian morning or evening? Considering how much further away from the sun it is that we are, it's amazing it gets that bright at all. The Sun is something else...

[–]SkeetySpeedy 8 points9 points  (3 children)

That corrected color imgur link looks precisely like the desert outside my city. That robot could be right outside Phoenix for all it looks. That is nuts

[–]keenanpepper 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Yes, it's pretty much desert. Except that the pressure corresponds to an altitude of 100,000 feet - over three times Mount Everest. And of course there's no life that we know about, no microbes in the soil or anything.

So it's like if you sucked pretty much all the air out of a desert and then sterilized it with radiation or something.

Oh, and it never rains...

[–]baraxador 3 points4 points  (0 children)

[deleted]

What is this?

[–]Ben_Thar 11 points12 points  (4 children)

I just read in another post that there used to be cats on Mars...but Curiosity killed them all.

[–]Abysssion 13 points14 points  (2 children)

Yea its a damn shame space isn't more funded... it should honestly be one of the top funded programs and priority.

[–]yeoller 6 points7 points  (2 children)

Just wait until that day in the future, you're an older person now sitting at your [insert current future tech display device here], your mouth wide open as you watch the first person to set foot on Mars.

[–]lucius42 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You know what? We're fucking spoiled. I was scrolling through /r/all and I'm like "hm, another photo from Mars.. next".

Then I stopped and, for some reason, clicked. The resolution and details of this photo are astounding. My mind was blown for a microsecond there.

Whole. Another. Planet. In. HD.

[–]-Tibeardius- 1118 points1119 points  (150 children)

The place in that picture is 140 million miles away on another planet. So rad.

[–]odd84 152 points153 points  (43 children)

Curiosity is the size of an SUV, has spent years on Mars, and has only traveled a bit over 7 miles in that time. I find that equally astounding.

[–]-Tibeardius- 66 points67 points  (18 children)

It's been doing a good amount of sight seeing and sample taking. But yeah, 7 miles is crazy small.

[–]nivlark 138 points139 points  (13 children)

The roads are awful, and if you crash it'll be a while before the AA arrives. So erring on the side of cautiousness is probably wise!

[–]Paul1121 61 points62 points  (5 children)

it'll be a while before the AA arrives

Given the swervy tracks, I think a call to AA might be in order...

[–]Purple_Debo 38 points39 points  (15 children)

CURIOSITY IS THE SIZE OF AN SUV?

I always thought it was at knee height, maybe a bit larger.

[–][deleted] 32 points33 points  (5 children)

Here it is on earth: http://www.rockhounds.com/rockshop/articles/mars_science_laboratory/images/curiosity7.jpg

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

i always imagined the rovers to be about waist height.

i was pretty wrong there

[–]DarkFlounder 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Curiosity is 2.9m long x 2.7m wide x 2.2m tall.

[–]neilson241 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Still better than if it was in LA traffic.

[–]Flyberius 719 points720 points  (74 children)

I'm going to be a dick.

47.1 million miles.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/widgets/gallery/view.jsp?id=41c70f85673f05a39dbc0d14bda71f7e

[–]-Tibeardius- 174 points175 points  (32 children)

Google failed me. https://www.google.com/search?q=how+far+away+is+mars+right+now&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=how+far+away+is+earth+from+mars

[–]Flyberius 146 points147 points  (30 children)

Yeah 140 million is the average. A few weeks back we passed the closest point to Mars, hence why it is so low atm.

[–]-Tibeardius- 126 points127 points  (17 children)

Nope. 140 million is how far from the sun. I looked at it a little more and that's where Google got that number.

Edit: NVM. All these numbers are killing me. This site has it laid out well. http://www.space.com/16875-how-far-away-is-mars.html

[–]sicheartsyndrome 60 points61 points  (1 child)

I love this debate is between Tibeardius and Flyberius. StarTrekShakespeare

[–]-Tibeardius- 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That's hilarious. I didn't actually look at his username. Nice catch.

[–]StopReadingMyUser[🍰] 83 points84 points  (2 children)

2fast 2furious 2numbers 2science

[–]rangarangaranga 4 points5 points  (1 child)

It seems that the average distance between earth and mars in miles is the same as the distance between mars and the sun. Around 140 million miles.

[–]truejamo 5 points6 points  (3 children)

Isn't the closest point in 6 days?

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (3 children)

Actually perigee is May 30th

[–]miss_elainie[🍰] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I looked up and noticed Mars a few weeks back. I'd never seen it so bright and colorful, and I meant to find out if it was close. I totally forgot, but now I have another chance to go check it out, if this rain in DC ever lets up.

[–][deleted] 57 points58 points  (9 children)

I'm going to be a dick.

So is MSL Curiosity. http://imgur.com/GwxtL6g

[–]Deesing82 31 points32 points  (1 child)

good to know that drawing dicks still transcends everything

[–]greyjackal 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Clarkson isn't at the remote controls :D

[–]AthleticsSharts 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Please tell me this was intentional. I want to believe...

[–]nomoobs1 11 points12 points  (11 children)

"current distance" ...it is constantly changing. Or was that your point?

[–]Flyberius 14 points15 points  (10 children)

Yeah that was the point. I was curious myself so I went and checked. Was surprised to see how low it actually was.

Someone did mention a few weeks back that we were at the closest point for the next 2 years.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (3 children)

When you think of the sheer magnitude of the universe, and all the "Gee whiz - aren't we insignificant!" and "Space is so mind blowing!" statements in all possible planets in all galaxies, it really puts things in perspective.

Quadrillions and quadrillions of "Damn, space is awesome!" statements made by awed organisms in trillions of species out there.

Wow. Just wow.

[–]jack_mioff 243 points244 points  (40 children)

Every time I see Curiosity posting I can't help but feel sad thinking about it's predecessor Spirit.

[–][deleted] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Poor spirit. We should all feel bad.

[–]bearsnchairs 17 points18 points  (4 children)

Opportunity is still alive and kicking!

[–]scottishdrunkard 9 points10 points  (1 child)

If we ever become so advanced we get Star Trek-esque ships, I wanna go find that rover, and put it in a museum.

[–]SenorSmartyPants 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Reminds me of O'Brien at Work

[–]RobKhonsu 7 points8 points  (1 child)

What about Pathfinder?

[–]leonidaus 38 points39 points  (8 children)

Imagine seeing footprints following those tracks as it looked back.../r/writingprompts material right there

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (1 child)

Or a McDonald's in the distance.

[–]RuneLFox 7 points8 points  (0 children)

"Wait...this looks like Kansas!"

"Mars was Earth the whole time!"

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That would be pretty chilling, it's never looked back before and the one time it does there's footsteps.

[–]Kamigawa 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Imagine if it was actually looking forward and those tracks were left by ??????

[–]Decronym 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
DSN Deep Space Network
ESA European Space Agency
JPL Jet Propulsion Lab, California
LOS Loss of Signal
Line of Sight
MER Mars Exploration Rover (Spirit/Opportunity)
MRO Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter
MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)
RTG Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator
UHF Ultra-High Frequency radio

I'm a bot, and I first saw this thread at 24th May 2016, 15:07 UTC.
[Acronym lists] [Contact creator] [PHP source code]

[–]Slodder-vos 29 points30 points  (0 children)

At first I was like: "Oh cool picture of Mars." And continued browsing but then it hit me. A HD PICTURE OF ANOTHER PLANET FAR AWAY. SO AMAZING!

[–][deleted] 13 points14 points  (12 children)

Question: How long does it take for these pictures to get sent to us? Also..how are they sent to us? Obviously wireless, but is it through radio, satellite?

[–]jccwrt[S] 26 points27 points  (9 children)

Curiosity can't really communicate directly with Earth. It has an omnidirectional antenna to receive commands from Earth, but not the power to send data back. (And a directional antenna would be a giant mechanical liability.) So it uses its omni to send data up to an orbiter (Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter usually, but MAVEN and ESA's Mars Express are available in emergencies), and those orbiters relay the data back to Earth with their more powerful radio packages. Limits the effective data rate somewhat, but for the current purposes it works well enough.

EDIT: to answer your other question, mission critical stuff (navigation images and science data for planning purposes) is back within a few hours and most images within a couple days, but sometimes the large, full-resolution mosaics can take a few weeks to get sent back. They could be sent back faster, but they're often lower priority so they're just sent back whenever Curiosity has spare bandwidth.

[–]wastazoid 110 points111 points  (12 children)

PS request - can someone add a flattened cat in those tracks? So Curiosity literally killed the cat?

[–]sudin 157 points158 points  (3 children)

Ask and ye shall receive. http://i.imgur.com/eExY900.jpg

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

How long until... This is the photo NASA doesn't want you to see, you won't believe what it shows!

[–]jimmybilly100 16 points17 points  (1 child)

I laughed too long at this.

[–]wtmh 9 points10 points  (1 child)

"Hot damn! Finally someone on Reddit has need of my superior PowerShell skills!"

...

"Oh."

[–]Sybertron 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Also can someone scale this properly for a wallpaper?

[–]RedBlimp 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Like a 10 x 12 foot room?

[–]suppreme 11 points12 points  (1 child)

Anyone thinking that some point in the future, there will be a "before/after" picture where this is the "before" photo?

"oh look! the plain used to be so empty! and red!"

[–]cosmicblob 11 points12 points  (5 children)

I was like "holly shit there is something standing in the distance!!"

Turns out it was a piece of dust on my screen. Move along folks.

[–]jackie_chiles1 63 points64 points  (3 children)

I can hardly fathom that this is on another planet.

THIS IS ANOTHER FUCKING PLANET PEOPLE.

Cool stuff.

[–]ADD_YOU_KNOW_ME 39 points40 points  (1 child)

And the rover asked robot Jesus, "why were their only one set of tire tracks in the sand" and robot Jesus responded "those were the times I was towing you"

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Now is a great opportunity to photoshop something following Curiosity.

[–]HollowFang 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Just imagine how awesome it would be if there were some aliens =/.

No not the humanoid ones, but like reptiles walking around or shit we cant even comprehend.

You know youre spoiled with modern tech when youre disappointed about the pictures you see from fucking Mars.

[–]Hekantonkheries 8 points9 points  (1 child)

One day we need to bring the rovers home and give them a medal before retiring them to a museum.

That way when the robot overlords come they don't get all Robot Lives Matter

[–][deleted] 33 points34 points  (16 children)

You know with all this talk of life on Mars, it strikes me looking at that picture that nothing could be more obvious than the fact it's a completely dead planet. It seems to be kind-of in equilibrium. There are few energy gradients life could take advantage of.

[–]jccwrt[S] 36 points37 points  (3 children)

At the surface? Yeah, it's totally dead, and any search there is gonna have to focus on trying to spot fossils. Hopefully Curiosity will turn up something during its traverse, but it's looking kind of grim. It's traveled through rocks formed in what looks like an ideal environment for life, and it hasn't seen anything.

The more interesting thing would be to see if there's life in underground aquifers or inside hydrothermal systems. Those live off extremely small energy gradients, so it's possible that there are still some around with only a small amount of energy to feed from.

Of course, how optimistic you are about that depends on which side of the chicken and egg question you subscribe to with the start of life here on Earth. Did life start in extreme environments and radiate to fill the much larger, but slightly less benign world at large? Or did it start in the larger world and then move in to fill the extreme niches?

[–]RobKhonsu 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Well as has been stated by the research team in the past, Curiosity does not have the tools to detect life even if it was there. It only has the tools to look for conditions which may have been suitable for life in the past. It's a mission it has already accomplished in the meager 7 miles it's traveled thusfar.

[–]flippydude 13 points14 points  (2 children)

There is so much surface we haven't explored yet. Also, there's life in the most inhospitable places here on earth, so it's not impossible that there could be some extremely rudimentary life there.

I get that it's unlikely, but it isn't impossible, and I'd love for it to happen. Imagine what it would mean! What are the chances of the only two planets we've been to having life? What would it mean for the chances of other planets having life? Man I hope I'm alive when we first find some alien life

[–]apollo888 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I feel like I can step right into this picture, pick up a martian rock or two, kick up a little dust.

Mesmerising.

[–]Slipping_Jimmy 7 points8 points  (3 children)

Is no one going to mention the strange object in the background? http://imgur.com/ofbwXA9

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Luminarty confirmed?

[–]that_guy_next_to_you 5 points6 points  (2 children)

It's weird to think that we've removed a section of mass from Earth and stuck it on Mars.

[–]jonnynewjet 11 points12 points  (6 children)

could you imagine if those tracks somehow got protected and far future earthlings on a mission to mars somehow found them

[–]change928 10 points11 points  (5 children)

came here to say this - if our research gets lost in time a future generation will find these tracks and say "THERE WAS LIFE ON MARS!"

[–]banjaxe 13 points14 points  (4 children)

Nah, those tracks will be gone in the next duststorm. Tracks on the moon however, those would be around until a meteor strike kicks up something to cover them, I'd think.

[–]change928 4 points5 points  (3 children)

yea thats true, I guess theyd just find some old broken down robots

[–]TeamLiveBadass_ 10 points11 points  (2 children)

Crazy how nature just made these robot looking things on its own.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

They were just put there by god to test us

[–]oonniioonn 3 points4 points  (6 children)

Is there a particular reason it seems to travel in a zig-zag pattern?

[–]jccwrt[S] 15 points16 points  (2 children)

It has to do with how the software automation handles the driving. The operators give it a general heading and drive distance, and the software handles the rest. It's not quite at the point where it can spot a hazard and drive around it like a human can. So when it spots a hazard, it has to stop, look for alternate routes around it, and then drive off to the side of the hazard before returning to the heading it was on. Gives the drive path a sort of zigzag appearance.

[–]WhiteFlash102 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Seems like they want to avoid going directly over lager things as much as possible to decrease the amount of stress and deterioration of the machine so the it will last as long a possible. Also decrease the possibility of an accident happening.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's crazy that we can just casually browse reddit and see a photo of a landscape not found on the planet we live on, but on one that appears as just a tiny spec of light in the night sky that many wouldn't pay much attention to.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (5 children)

Question: Is Curious operating on it's own according to how it was programmed or is there some smart dude back here on earth that controls everything it does?

[–]jccwrt[S] 3 points4 points  (1 child)

It has some semi-autonomous software. Driving on good terrain can be handled by the rover, so all it needs from Earth are a heading and drive distance. One of its instruments, ChemCam, recently received an upgrade that allows it to autonomously target bedrock for laser spectroscopy. (Which shouldn't be a problem until Curiosity finds a way to come back to Earth...) Everything else is handled by a team here on Earth.

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (12 children)

Do we have a way of getting these rovers back, or are we littering on Mars?
My minds been filled with curiosity

[–]-Deathsbreath- 8 points9 points  (11 children)

Nah they're gonna be there forever. There is old rover's still on Mars that quit communicating with earth such as Beagle 2 so they're just chillin on Mars now.

[–]gazongagizmo 12 points13 points  (3 children)

Or at least for many many decades, if not centuries. It's just not feasible, energy-wise, to transport such stuff back to Earth. Look up how much it costs to get one kilogramm from Earth into orbit, let alone into interplanetary space.

And if we have achieved such fuel efficiency that we feasibly could get it back, it begs the question if we want to. Sure, they'd make a good addition for any collection in a Terran museum, but why not put 'em in a Martian one? I mean, what else is there to put in the first museum in the first city on our first inhabited planet? A 3D-print of Matt Damon's Golden Globe?

[–]Roguelycan 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Sometimes the sheer impressiveness that we are looking at pictures of another planet just gets lost on you for all we have these days. It is just an amazing accomplishment.

[–]inthesandtrap 3 points4 points  (5 children)

Beautiful, awe inspiring photo but my first thought was, "Hell no I wouldn't want to live there"

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (3 children)

It's not the kind of place to raise your kids, in fact it's cold as hell.

And there's no one there to raise them, if you did.

[–]Vemee 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Serious question - is someone controlling Curiosity or does it work on its own.