Mars Rover Curiosity Snaps Hi-Res Color Views of Red Planet

Curiosity is not supposed to make money for the US Treasury in a day or a week. Nor is Curiosity supposed to pay down the national debt. However, Curiosity does make our science programs better and and also our state of the world technologies better which all makes the whole of the US better in the long run. Curiosity is the best feel good story for our space program since the early SST days.

On the JPL home page, click on "Raw Images", you'll get a contact sheet sorted by Sols and in date/time order. There are 269 photos from Sol 3 alone. There are far more photos than the press lets on.

Too bad we didn't receive the same quality pics of that " Dust Plume" that disappeared.

All of the hundreds of photos are available at the JPL website in full resolution. So you can either go directly to the source or just sit here and whine.

Hoping Curiosity will last at least as long as Opportunity and Spirit!

Go figure, Mars and Iraq look the same.

Why waste money on a man flight to Mars. We can do everything with curiosity.

Keep Wolowitz away from that rover!

Many of the comments you see posted here are the product of our current educational system and its self-absorbed recipients. If you take the time to read through some of them you will find most of our money has been wasted.

Looks like the Sahara Desert to me

The best images are yet to come. When NASA has the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) unpacked, uncapped, and shooting we will start getting some truly amazing images back.

what a wonderful time we live in! to see pictures of another planet! its just mind blowing! :)

The Mars Rover snapped a picture of a female Martian's pink panties while she was going up an escalator .. Naughty, naughty Rover !

I'm glad the Rover landed safely and will provide some interesting data. Good job NASA folks.

The space program is an easy sell for me: there are many terrestrial benefits from communications and weather (including solar and tracking global climate change), to geospatial intelligence, other mundane technologies (like oil absorbents, more efficient batteries, green technologies/recycling), and than, further out, things like asteroid deflection and deeper insight into our own planetary processes by comparison with other planetary processes. Exploration fits into some of these goals and then becomes an issue of robotic versus exploration. It is difficult to argue that robotic exploration is not cheaper and safer than human exploration--because it is. That's why I don't argue with those who do not see the value in human exploration. I love NASA's robotic exploration, program, but I'm a strong advocate of human space exploration as well--because I, personally, can't settle for vicarious exploration. In other words, I am for exploration. I am for humans venturing away from home and exploring the unknown. Baby steps. The moon and Mars. Robots and humans. Why do we go? Curiosity.

For those people asking for others to tell them what space exploration has done for us "down here"--have you actually tried looking? I typed in "space exploration derived technology" and found numerous articles and information related to everything from medical advancements (pharmaceutical,physical therapy, imaging) to fire fighting (SCBA, fire retardant, etc) to "going green" (more efficient batteries and solar technology and environmental clean up in the form of oil absorbents) to more mundane things like athletic equipment improvements, communications technology, air travel safety (lightning detection systems, etc), and the list continues. You're smart so we don't need to do your research for you. I'm just offering the "search" words to get you started.

Of course, none of this speaks to the intangible benefits that are brought about by space exploration and development, whether that be inspiring a generation of little boy and girl engineers and scientists who have made our modern marvels possible or simply planting seeds for future international collaboration on scientific endeavors (as opposed to war alliances and the like). Of course, much that we take for granted now that was not directly linked to space technologies would have been, in its own time of development, thought to be a waste of money or idle speculation with no benefit to the larger populace. It is for that very reason that science for science's sake must be pursued--and not for the sake of a political agenda (star wars), historically conditioned issue (Health care), or whatever other contingent issue which may or may not be affected. This is why we do science at all--because it opens up possibilities on the frontiers of knowledge which precisely because that knowledge was previously undiscovered those possibilities were occluded. Science for science's sake maintains the open stance toward the future and the hope inherent in such a stance.

Did they even mention 'the fog' in the Mars weather report?

We just landed Curiosity on Mars and the Taliban are blowing-up children and killing school-girls in Afghanistan.

What about the other 6 planets in our solar system? We've been focused on Mars for quite some time now - it would be incredible to see imagery from the surfaces of Jupiter and Saturn for example. Wonder what those planetary storms must look like from the inside.

Transparency:
@Nightryder: ...............can't wait to disprove the bible.........................lolololo......world chaos!

@Shawn:What does disproving the bible have to do with Curiosity? Strange comment. Or shallow understanding.

@Nightryder:Shawn, you being in DC, I will pass on giving you insight which would be a waste of time.

@Shawn: Nice way to dodge the question (i.e. by stereotyping/generalizing me based on geography--that does show some insight). Don't take my post as an accusation; take it as a question. How does Curiosity (or how would Curiosity) "disprove" the Bible? What would that even mean? I look forward to your insight.