Ares 3 Landing Site: The Martian Revisited

This observation from NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the target of the Ares 3 landing site from The Martian by Andy Weir. Andy then sent us the exact coordinates, which we targeted, and this is it. This closeup shows some wind-blown deposits inside eroded craters. We can't see the Ares 3 habitat because it arrives sometime in the future, so this is the "before" image. The dark areas appear bluish in HiRISE color but would appear grey to humans on the surface, or maybe a bit reddish when the air is dusty.Ares 3's 6-meter-diameter habitat would be just 20 pixels across at this scale, about 1/10th the diameter of the largest crater in the central cluster. If protagonist Mark Watney were laying flat on the surface, he would be 6 pixels tall. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19363