Astronomy Picture of the Day - Ares 3 Landing Site: The Martian Revisited

NASA ^ | 17 May, 2025 | Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: This close-up from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera shows weathered craters and windblown deposits in southern Acidalia Planitia. A striking shade of blue in standard HiRISE image colors, to the human eye the area would probably look grey or a little reddish. But human eyes have not gazed across this terrain, unless you count the eyes of NASA astronauts in the sci-fi novel, "The Martian," by Andy Weir. The novel chronicles the adventures of Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded at the fictional Mars mission Ares 3 landing site, corresponding to the coordinates of this cropped HiRISE frame. For scale, Watney's 6-meter-diameter habitat at the site would be about 1/10th the diameter of the large crater. Of course, the Ares 3 landing coordinates are only about 800 kilometers north of the (real life) Carl Sagan Memorial Station, the 1997 Pathfinder landing site.

[MtnClimber]

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[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Next time a guy tries to pick you up in a bar, tell him you’re from, ‘Acidalia Planitia.’

If he knows what you’re talking about, it might be a match, LOL!

[telescope115]

So cool. Mars’ terrain and environment are so, well, alien compared to ours, so interesting to see.

[MtnClimber]

Next time a guy tries to pick you up in a bar, tell him you’re from, ‘Acidalia Planitia.’

I have never had a guy try to pick me up in a bar. If that happened I would be too shocked to remember Acidalia Planitia!

[No name given]

Wow.

[MtnClimber]

So cool. Mars’ terrain and environment are so, well, alien compared to ours, so interesting to see.

Yes. But it does not make me want to live (and die) there.

[citizen]

I don’t see the habitat.

Seriously, Musk must be planning a habitat module complex, pre-positioned for use in some way.

What is it? 1) get there and back 2) get there, land for a while, then back 3) then stay for some duration

Personally, I hope all goes well. Musk may make some of it happen while I am still alive.

Otoh, because Musk is involved, I full well expect there to be legal challenges to “spoiliing a pristene Planet” or some such.

[citizen]

Hollywood movies are fun but crazy. Building a monster spaceship like the Ares for a Mars trip would be incredibly expensive, time consuming and very much an exercise in massive over-kill.

If Earth-Mars trips ever become the norm, then maybe we get an elaborate transfer vehicle.

[telescope115]

Yeah. It’s great to see from afar.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

OK. Or, ‘Gal.’ I’ll make it generic. ;)

[minnesota_bound]

Why doesn’t nasa land a probe right by a martian city?... 👽
Maybe they are worried they would panic the martians.