Would Mars be a nice place to visit? Sometimes.
Much of Mars
undergoes severe changes in climate
during its orbit around the Sun, ranging from extreme cold to temperatures
enjoyable by humans. But Mars is
usually a nice place to visit for hardy spacecraft, and in fact
the Mars Pathfinder
and Mars Global Surveyor
missions are currently headed for the "Red Planet."
In preparation for the scheduled Mars Pathfinder landing on July
4th, 1997, the Earth-Orbiting Hubble Space Telescope
recently took the above high resolution photograph.
The picture shows the onset of Martian summer (northern hemisphere)
when, apparently, the northern polar cap recedes to uncover dark
sand dunes.
