So This Is What Mars Looks Like

NASA
Alexander Abad-Santos 5,780 Views Aug 7, 2012

Today NASA released Curiosity's first color image of the Martian landscape, and well, we guess that's what $2.5 billion gets you. In all serious—and Instagram jokes aside—it's actually pretty cool (for anyone who has ever wanted to know what the Martian landscape looks like). As NASA explains, what you're looking at is the north wall and rim of the Gale Crater taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (aka, MAHLI). But perhaps more importantly, there's reason to believe that the photo quality will get better. "The image is murky because the MAHLI's removable dust cover is apparently coated with dust blown onto the camera during the rover's terminal descent. Images taken without the dust cover in place are expected during checkout of the robotic arm in coming weeks." writes NASA.

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