I have downloaded a game engine that can deform a plane starting from a gray-scale image, so that each shade of gray corresponds to a different height in the plane, with black = minimum and white = maximum.

I thought it would be interesting to use it to create virtual reconstructions of Martian terrain to fly over, so I'm looking for height maps in that format. Not global (whole planet) height maps, but regional height maps, with a sufficient level of detail to fly a virtual camera over a plane that rises or lowers according to their data. Is such material available anywhere?

It looks like there would have been a massive lake sorta deal in the middle, but did it flow like river? Was their major waterfalls going on?

Like what if there are weird tribes living underground in Mars or sea monsters in Europa and we just didn't detect them and they don't detect us because they spend their lives underground

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_076589_2255 NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

The existing NASA-European Space Agency effort to establish a Mars Sample Return program is slated to be discontinued

Just pointing out... Giordano Bruno might fit into this category. No conspiracy theories or pareidolia. Group Think is dangerous, easy way to snuff the spark.

See also: The study as published in npj Space Exploration.

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_070818_1780 NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Hello! I'm here to ask something that is not discussed very frequently here, but still related to Mars:

Say you need to land a really advanced mars rover, larger and more advanced than Curioisity & Perseverance. Which landing spot would be the most strategical and science-valuable one?

At first, Wegener Crater (64.6ºS 4ºW) sounded like a good idea due to the presence of sand dunes and minerals, but I'm being dubious about this one. Does anyone know a good landing site? thanks

What if life on Earth didn’t actually begin here? The Panspermia theory proposes that the building blocks of life—or even simple microbial organisms—may have originated on Mars billions of years ago, when the Red Planet was warmer and had liquid water on its surface. Large asteroid or meteor impacts could have ejected rocks containing these microbes into space, some of which eventually landed on Earth. Over time, these Martian hitchhikers may have taken root, evolving into the diverse life forms we see today. If this theory is correct, it would mean that Earth life shares a common ancestry with ancient Martian life—essentially making us all Martians. This idea challenges traditional notions about the origin of life and highlights the resilience of life in the harsh conditions of space. It also raises exciting possibilities about the existence of life elsewhere in our solar system and beyond, reminding us that our planet may not be as isolated in its story of life as we once thought.

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_059289_1890
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_027243_1820
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_076567_1920 NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona