This is a really cool video describing one of the highest-resolution photos taken on the martian surface: How cool is it that we can sit on our couches and look at the surface of another planet in this kind of detail?
Exploring Mars will be more interesting when humans actually do the exploring. I think its also time for NASA to put a Curiosity type rover on Enceladus.
from the pov of a biologist I'd be happier if we wouldn't send probes and astronauts to other planets. They inevitably contaminate the environment with bacteria and other microbes and thus can easily ruin an ecosystem. We are not aware yet of any life on Mars but at the moment I would hesitate to dismiss the possibility. It'd be wiser to develop devices like TOS tricorders that can scan for lifeforms from afar. As the flu prooves every year: it is absolutely impossible to contain an infection within a defined radius.
RAD is pretty rad... The sky is surprisingly blue. If not unsurprisingly thin, noticing how the skyline goes from blue to black. Ingredients needed for life exist (water, ice, light, heat, sufficient gravity, a cozy motel and candlelight dinner with Barry White music, etc...) Atmosphere can hold in heat but that has to be built up and with a bit more oxygen. If terraforming were possible, but the other issue does include the distance from the sun as that's more a constant. I can only guess how much they're doing to procure and test soil samples... They figured out water existed... it all evaporated or something. Maybe the aliens from "V" scooped it up. The 1983 version, not the half-baked clueless reboot. For life to flourish, lots of water needs to make a comeback. More than a bathtub's worth, even without the rose petals and bubble bath mix. How much water do the ice clouds hold? How much would the ground absorb before allowing a lake to remain stable. Or underground, but that might not be sufficient... Can microbes and bacteria survive the months-long transit across space? The temperature can put them in suspended animation... the equatorial area can get above 0C during the day (research time is needed by me to read up on) but many areas would surely not get above 0C... So if life as we know it exists, it will be in a very small region near the equator... even then, it'll be microbes and bacteria that might be similar to ours. If it survives getting there. No signs of hoofprints anywhere... or feet... not even a big starfleet insignia. Or carbon deposits, silicon... oil is a necessity, even in manufacturing solar panels. The panorama reveals a lot and shows a lot of promise. But terraforming's clearly a big task. More land to put people and animals and save populations from extinction. It's not impossible. Just daunting.
NASA avoided accidental contamination of Enceladus by throwing Cassini into Saturn instead of letting things to chance.
More here: I actually think Viking hurt the interest in Mars because the landscapes there looked so dismal https://www.space.com/33482-viking-mars-landing-science-legacy.html