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The narrator explains why getting HD video would be impractical, but I disagree that we get the same experience from panning stills.

imagine seeing the swirling dust, shifting sands, the bumps and parallax from a moving rover. that would be so cool!




Would be great to add a quality binaural microphone and listen to the sound of Mars.

Apparently the Mars 2020 Rover (https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/microphones) will have that capacity when it lands in February 2021 but the microphones may break after landing: "Engineers are optimizing this microphone for space from easily available, store-bought hardware. It is unlikely it will work beyond landing. If it does survive, we may be able to hear the sounds of the Martian winds and sounds of the working rover, such as the wheels turning, or the motors that turn its head, and the heat pumps that keep it warm."


Very little shifting sands.

Winds in Mars have almost no strength. Air pressure in the Mars surface is very low, something like 1% of Earths. Dust devils and storms are made of extremely fine powder.


The movement shown in this video[0] happened over the span of a martian day. Do not dismiss the winds of Mars, as they have also killed[1] a couple of rovers already.

[0] https://youtu.be/k7pfdFMVj-o

[1] They have also breathed new life on one of those (before killing it, yes) by cleaning the solar panels. I'm referring to the MER Rovers Spirit & Opportunity.


As you said, that movement of was over a day and the camera was pointing downwards towards very tiny details of fine grained powder next to a wheel. You wouldn't notice anything in real time video.

The problem with Mars dust is that it's electrostatic and sticks to surfaces like solar panels.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/the-fact-and-fiction-of...

>It is unlikely that even these dust storms could strand an astronaut on Mars, however. Even the wind in the largest dust storms likely could not tip or rip apart major mechanical equipment. The winds in the strongest Martian storms top out at about 60 miles per hour, less than half the speed of some hurricane-force winds on Earth.

>Focusing on wind speed may be a little misleading, as well. The atmosphere on Mars is about 1 percent as dense as Earth’s atmosphere. That means to fly a kite on Mars, the wind would need to blow much faster than on Earth to get the kite in the air.


Totally agree that "The Martian" would never happen in real life. Still, as other have pointed out, there are dust devils and "strong" winds.


"strong" is called a breeze.

Strongest martian storm can have wind speeds up to 100 km/h. Because low air density, the force of the wind would be equal to "Fresh breeze" in Beaufort Wind Scale. (8.5-10.5 m/s) "Small trees sway, waves break on inland waters."


Parallax, maybe, but no wind = no swirling dust or shifting sands, no?


There is in fact wind. Only ~1% as much air as Earth, but it's sufficient to support phenomena like dust devils.

https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/1...

Of course, it's very weak, so it couldn't push over a spacecraft or building like in "The Martian", but I suspect sands shifts on a very slow timescale. I'm not sure.



You just linked to the ESA version of my NASA link :)


I think I meant to reply to the person above you.


In the images of the post, you can see these effects of wind-driven sand and dust, such as rippled dunes.


But there is wind, and storms.


Isn't there wind on Mars?


> The narrator

It's a machine.




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