The Best Hike On Mars You'll Ever Take

[n2doc]

It took five years, three months and 27 days, but you can do it all in three minutes. Here, from start to finish, is what the NASA rover "Spirit" sniffed, bopped, scratched and saw as it moved across 4.8 miles of the Martian surface.

The lens is wide-angled, so the horizon always looks like a curved mountain top; every so often a one-armed probe, looking weirdly lobster-like, will suddenly appear, noodle around, poke, tap or sift through the Martian soil.

Towards the end you'll catch glimpses of the sun setting, (same sun! different set! I thought.) until Spirit gets stuck in the Martian muck and then, dramatically, everything goes dark. The folks who edited this together added movie music, which makes it really fun to watch. This is the best low-res, low-priced, low energy Martian hike you'll ever take.

video at link

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/12/02/143051269/the-best-hike-on-mars-you-ll-ever-take?sc=fb&cc=fp