These two web pages are an incredible link to another world: the ongoing archive of all raw photos taken on Mars to date by Spirit and Opportunity. These thousands of photos are all black-and-white, taken through various color filters. After a few days of reconstruction work on Earth, several of these filtered photos can be combined into color versions that are released to the public – but why not see the raw images in the meantime?

Not to detract from Spirit, but at the moment Opportunity is in the catbird’s seat, scooting along a 30-foot-long formation of exposed Martian bedrock. The plan is to survey the whole length of the outcropping and then go back for a look at the most interesting places. There are already some facinating microscopic photos. For example, was this formed by lava, or water, or wind, or something else? And just what in the world – er, Mars – is this? Could it be…nah, it couldn’t be. Could it? Note added 2/12: Nope.

Update [2004-2-9 14:25:29 by rickyjames]: Opportunity’s landing site has been located; it’s the white crossmark on the perimeter of the black oval. She has seen her own parachute and will probably head on over to an even deeper crater less than a kilometer away across an easy-to-drive sandy surface.