Be a Martian tourist!!

Wanna really get away?  Go to Mars!  You could use a commercial, deep-space rocket and travel for months in cramped quarters with a bunch of other tourists.  (Imagine getting on a plane for a 4000 hour, non-stop flight with all those screaming kids… better be lots of free booze on that flight!)  Or, you could take your touristy pictures from the comfort of home!  Check out the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE).  It’s run out of the University of Arizona in conjunction with NASA and is focused on using high resolution images of Mars to study the weather, geology, topology, tectonics, and climate change.  Scientists have been using this data for years to develop models for these processes but Mars is a pretty big planet and the number of interesting sites to study is pretty vast.  I mean, we haven’t finished exploring Earth yet!  So, there is an opportunity for us Dark Lab types to dig into this treasure trove of data.  Much like the fuzzy blob site (blobs post), you can sift through pictures and highlight interesting or unusual features.  But they also take it one step further… with HiWish (link) you can actually suggest (using a Google-Mars like platform) Martian features to be photographed.  If selected, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be sent commands to zoom in on your target and take high resolution images.  Amazingly cool!  Many of the gallery pictures are really cool.  The image above is a shot of a very recent (like, within the last year) meteorite strike.  Other examples of interesting features would be odd canyons, rock formations, and that little green man with the Death Blaster.  Apparently, Martians don’t like being peeped at with telescopes.