New vistas on Mars

Spirit and Opportunity just keep chugging along. Spirit has just about reached the crest of Husband Hill, and the view is already amazing. The hoped-for layered formations? Looks like it. I'm sure we'll be seeing more and hearing something about it in the coming days.

Spirit's view ahead. (Images from JPL, processed by WhatonMars.com)
See full size original HERE.

And Opportunity is within a couple days drive of getting into the etched terrain -- a whole new kind of Martian landscape, perhaps, something the likes of which we've never seen before. The next few days could be very interesting.


beginnings of etched terrain?


There are a couple of nice new features in Astrobiology magazine online:
An interview with Nathalie Cabrol about her fieldwork with the rover Zoe in the Atacama desert; and excerts from a talk by Chris McKay, also of NASA-Ames, on how to recognize life if we see it. Both are worth a look.