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.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[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.