June 1, 2008

Mars

For all the art photography I look at some of the pictures that compel me the most are taken by robots. This view taken yesterday by the Phoenix Lander of of what is almost surely ice on Mars sent my little geek heart aflutter:
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And since we are on the subject of Mars here are two other favorite images: below is the much reproduced sunset over Gusev crater (Spirit Rover):

and

A view into a deep pit crater on the side of a volcano taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:
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Somewhere in storage I have a big book of Mars images (including 3D images) produced by the Viking Landers which I picked up with grass cutting money after a visit to Nasa when I was around 12. The pictures might look fairly primitive compared to the ones coming through now, but there were very few single books that had a greater impact on my adolescence.

More adolescent geekery: ASCII Days

posted at 01:12 AM by raul

Filed under: space

TAGS: geekery (1) mars (2) robots (4) science (1)

Comments:

06/01/08 03:05 PM

The photos coming back lately have been very cool to look at. I have always been intrigued with space and the quality of the stuff is fantastic. I know what you mean about the books having a big impact. I treasured mine and eventually wore the pages out. I can still remember hearing the moon landing on the radio. We were camping in Wisconsin and I think I was the only kid excited about it.

06/02/08 03:20 PM

For a photograph made by a robot, that second photograph really is beautiful. I love how erie the color in the sky is.

06/03/08 11:10 PM

Hey the middle picture got linked on Boing Boing... if you follow the links back it comes back here. Fascinating how things like this wend their way around the net.

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