A trip to Mars

September 25, 2009 8:28 AM

Columbia Hills Flyover 2.0 - "a flyover of the Columbia Hills on Mars using data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Spirit, the Mars rover. "
posted by Burhanistan (13 comments total)

Dear Metafilter: the best of space is probably my favorite thing about you.

Totally neat. Thanks Burhanistan.
posted by Lutoslawski at 8:41 AM on September 25, 2009

Wow. I was on Mars, there, for a couple of minutes...

Great link, Burhanistan.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 9:54 AM on September 25, 2009

That was awesome, thank you. I've been devouring Kim Stanely Robinson's Mars Trilogy, so this was especially cool to watch.
posted by donovan at 10:21 AM on September 25, 2009

Wow. Predictably, I got all misty when little rover came in to view. Great link.
posted by Mngo at 11:08 AM on September 25, 2009

Gorgeous game, great soundtrack, but the controls are a bit lacking. What do I push to get the little robot guy un-stuck?
posted by rokusan at 11:30 AM on September 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm still amazed that this inanimate object can invoke an emotional response from people. Go little robot, go!
posted by njohnson23 at 12:19 PM on September 25, 2009

Outstanding, thank you.
posted by darkstar at 12:23 PM on September 25, 2009

So, did Dr. Manhattan hold the camera?
posted by The Whelk at 12:27 PM on September 25, 2009

Oh, and since it's topical:

New images reveal virtually pure water on Martian surface.

and

Definitive evidence that there's water on the Moon.

Pretty exciting: with water, you can get oxygen to breathe and hydrogen (fuel) on-site.
posted by darkstar at 12:30 PM on September 25, 2009

I also got misty - but it was when we retreated from the little robot, and left it there all small and helpless. My eyes kept returning to find the spot that was zooming away from view.

Best of the Web indeed. Well done Burhanistan.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 12:55 PM on September 25, 2009

I'm still amazed that this inanimate object can invoke an emotional response from people. Go little robot, go!

It probably goes without saying, but I think the response isn't really to the robot per se (although the rovers are damn cool and have exceeded everyone's expectations for service life) but rather that it represents our foothold and sensory perspective there. When the camera zooms out and leaves the rover behind, it also leaves us kind of stuck back here on Earth. The desire to know what it's like to walk on the surface of other planets is pretty strong, and the rovers do a yeoman's job of giving us a taste of that. I hope they can get Spirit out of its current predicament.
posted by Burhanistan at 3:04 PM on September 25, 2009

I loved those little robots so much that I remixed a Mefimusic post about them
posted by The Whelk at 5:23 PM on September 25, 2009

MESSENGER: Three days out from Mercury
posted by homunculus at 11:42 AM on September 27, 2009