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True Blue Door

(2,969 posts)
3. We spend billions of dollars on Mars exploration.
Mon Sep 29, 2014, 02:56 PM
Sep 2014

But sometimes the US Mars program loses sight of how important naturalistic imagery is. The probes are overwhelmingly just designed to take images of scientific relevance rather than inspiring "celestial portraiture."

So, mostly black and white images of sand dunes and craters, pretty much. But NASA archives are wide open, so feel free to comb them:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/targetFamily/Mars

OMG simply stunning. Amazing what a country that doesn't spend all their money waging war can do Autumn Sep 2014 #1
We spend billions of dollars on Mars exploration. True Blue Door Sep 2014 #3
When compared to the trillions we spend on war obxhead Sep 2014 #10
True. But it remains the largest space budget of any country. True Blue Door Sep 2014 #12
we just sent a Mars orbiter and it's there *right now*; MisterP Sep 2014 #13
Yeah, but just imagine where we would be if we didn't spend money on war. Autumn Sep 2014 #17
we're going to Pluto MisterP Sep 2014 #18
I think the point being made is just that we should spend a lot more money on space True Blue Door Sep 2014 #25
Mosaics, mostly. NASA doesn't spend much time on portraiture. True Blue Door Sep 2014 #21
" All of us are standing in the gutter, some of us are looking at the stars " ' The Pretenders ' orpupilofnature57 Sep 2014 #2
Link to source? riqster Sep 2014 #4
Sure: True Blue Door Sep 2014 #5
Thanks! Gonna bookmark it. riqster Sep 2014 #6
Beautiful. On the Mac it is "open image in new tab." alfredo Sep 2014 #7
My son the budding astrophysicist sent SheilaT Sep 2014 #8
There are several current Mars orbiters. True Blue Door Sep 2014 #9
SEVERAL Mars orbiters?? SheilaT Sep 2014 #16
The currently operational Mars orbiters (in addition to Mangalyaan) are: True Blue Door Sep 2014 #22
Hey TheVisitor Sep 2014 #11
The Western part is called Arabia Terra. The Eastern, Terra Sabaea. True Blue Door Sep 2014 #15
kick samsingh Sep 2014 #14
I thought the white was ice and not dust storms. I was under the impression Mars didn't have storms bloomington-lib Sep 2014 #19
It has a very thin atmosphere, but it has some very fine-grained, lightweight dust True Blue Door Sep 2014 #23
"... faint wisp of the atmosphere on the limb." ret5hd Sep 2014 #20
The edge of the planet. In the high-res magnification you can see True Blue Door Sep 2014 #24
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