This is such an improvement over the Viking landers, which were blind and would not have detected a Martian tap dancing in a circle around the lander. We live in amazing times.
It looks like the foreground is an old lake bed, with all the water evaporated. I wonder where it all went, or is it locked somewhere under ground.
The Viking landers were not blind, they just took ages to record and send a single still image.
http://www.msss.com/mars/pictures/viking_lander/12a168corr.jpg
http://www.msss.com/mars/pictures/viking_lander/22a158corr.jpg
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/Viking%2BLander%2B1
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/mission_page/MR_Viking_2_Lander_page1.html
