2025年5月17日
Ares 3 Landing Site: The Martian Revisited
Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA
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.
Tomorrow’s picture: fly over pluto
战神3号的着陆点: 再访火星人
影像提供: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA
说明: 这张由火星勘测轨道飞行器高解析科学实验相机（HiRISE）所拍摄的特写影像，呈现了阿希达利亚平原（Acidalia Planitia）南部的风化撞击坑和风积土。不过，虽然在标准HiRISE相机影像里，这个区域带着深浅不一的动人蓝色，但是在人类的肉眼里，色彩可能会是偏灰或泛红。事实上，人类并未真的看过这片区域，除非你把安迪·威尔所撰科幻小说《火星人》里的美国国家航空航天局宇航员之双眼给算上。这本小说描述虚构的战神3号（Ares 3）火星任务宇航员马克·华特尼，困在火星时的探险故事；而任务着落点的座标，就位于这片经过裁切的HiRISE影像视野之内。作为度量尺标，华特尼所居住的6米直径火星屋，相当于影像中较大型撞击坑直径的十分之一。战神3号虚构着陆点的座标，大约在1997年探路者号（真实任务）着陆的卡尔·萨根记念站北方约800公里之处。
明日的图片: fly over pluto
