Well, wait a second! ... this production doesn’t have any association with NASA, does it? I was distracted by the mention of the APOD, which is NASA sponsored, if I’m not mistaken. Anyway, that’s a load off my mind! People can do whatever they want these images, but be advised, this interactive panorama is not an accurate representation, as I believe I’ve shown.
Well... since the Martian soil looks pretty much like a dried up riverbed anyway, it wasn’t what interested me .
AND... a lot of work was done to eliminate the ‘arm’ which held the camera so it wouldn’t show up in the photos and this interactive view, which might have led to obscuring certain details of the ground.
HOWEVER, the view of the rover itself is awesome, and it’s not like the ‘view’ was meant to be used to do scientific research on the ingredients of the soil based on the image seen by the layman.
It’s just for entertainment, and in that respect, it is awesome.