I was amazed as a small child when Viking landed on Mars and we saw colour pictures that were (relatively) high res for the first time, you could almost have been there. I get the seem feeling now. I wouldn't have believed either a small helicopter would be flying on their autonomously either within my lifetime.

Recorded full 30 (or 60?) fps video is a historic moment ! Albeit at somewhat low resolution, only 1280x1024 is HD, but lower than today's common Full HD ( 1920x1080), so it looks a bit "dated", but awesome nevertheless, considering where it happened ! Never before a spacecraft far away from Earth did that (just pictures or sequences of pictures), not fluid video.

As a kid I still thought we'd have vacation in space by the time I get old. Not many years left, but we shall see 😀

fantaskarsef:

As a kid I still thought we'd have vacation in space by the time I get old. Not many years left, but we shall see 😀

Aren't they adding a tourists module to the iss some date somewhat soon ? I warn you though ticket prices will be spicy ! :P

I'm still amazed at these rovers...it's like using a slingshot to fire a bee-bee to hit a 1/4" opening dead center from 100 miles away in gale-force winds...;) Every time they send one I cringe considering all the stuff that could so easily go wrong--what an accomplishment! I doubt they'll find anything in the way of microbial petrification of anything that was undeniably living a couple of billion years ago--I think Mars is dead and has always been dead and highly inimical to life as we know it on Earth. NASA likes to emphasize that remote possibility more than is needed, I think. Because I think going to Mars is entirely worth it just for the sake of the geology sciences data...! So much to learn...

Venix:

Aren't they adding a tourists module to the iss some date somewhat soon ? I warn you though ticket prices will be spicy ! 😛

Life insurance and accidental death policies will go through the roof...;)

@waltc3 yeah the chance to find evidence of life are really slim ,but if they find anything that proves there was life in mars it will change everything.that would show we didn't have to go that far to find evidence of life out of the earth. On the other hand that will bring back and relative than ever the Fermi paradox . Where is everybody ?

Bit of in interesting visualizer for how large this thing is. I'm really looking forward to seeing what images the helicopter captures https://i.imgur.com/BIe2Zhb.jpg