Thursday, April 25, 2013

dirty space news: all over mars

it seems several news outlets have finally started to appreciate the humorous value of dirty space news, although they aren't calling it by that name.

either the spirit or opportunity rover on mars created these telling tracks on the surface of the red planet during a routine maneuver.

Credit: NASA
i call it "routine" because there are other photos where a similar pattern is made in the dusty dirt.



just think about it - there are probably penises drawn in the dirt ALL OVER MARS.   well done, NASA ;) 

UPDATE:  how could i have forgotten to remind us all about the marssack?   thanks, phil plait, for pointing out this folly.  

UPDATE: in the comments, ed davies offers some excellent information about the above images.  according to doug ellison the first image was part of a large panorama taken by the spirit rover on sols 59 to 61 (march 3 to 5, 2004).  the other images were also taken by spirit in early 2004.  

and the sad news, those tire tracks are probably not on the surface of mars anymore, as strong winds would have blown them away.   sad, really :(

3 comments:

Ed Davies said...

Doug Ellison says “Spirit drove that on Sol 52 took the pics on Sol 60-61 (end of Feb '04)”

Tweet

Ed Davies said...

Scott Maxwell's five-year-delayed blog post for the planning day: Spirit Sol 51

(From his tweet)

Sakib said...

So dirty its dusty! You're addicted to astro porn!! :)