[meteorite-list] The Best Hike on Mars You'll Ever Take

[dorifry]

This video compresses 5 years and 4 months of the Martian rover Spirit's 
travels on the surface of the Red Planet into less than 3 minutes.



The Best Hike On Mars You'll Ever Take

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/12/02/143051269/the-best-hike-on-mars-you-ll-ever-take

by Robert Krulwich

It took five years, three months and 27 days, but you can do it all in three 
minutes. Here, from start to finish, is what the NASA rover "Spirit" 
sniffed, bopped, scratched and saw as it moved across 4.8 miles of the 
Martian surface.

The lens is wide-angled, so the horizon always looks like a curved mountain 
top; every so often a one-armed probe, looking weirdly lobster-like, will 
suddenly appear, noodle around, poke, tap or sift through the Martian soil.

Towards the end you'll catch glimpses of the sun setting, (same sun! 
different set! I thought.) until Spirit gets stuck in the Martian muck and 
then, dramatically, everything goes dark. The folks who edited this together 
added movie music, which makes it really fun to watch. This is the best 
low-res, low-priced, low energy Martian hike you'll ever take.

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Phil Whitmer

Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum