Didn't we do this in 1997?
Seriously, I'm as big a NASA supporter as ever, but at some point soon we need to advance beyond what was achieved 15 years ago -- with the little rover and the low-rez photography.
And it's a little weird that the ill-conceived Total Recall reboot opened over the weekend. Did they plan this?
UPDATE and CLARIFICATION. The point of this post wasn't to piss in anyone's breakfast, and it certainly wasn't meant to be a criticism of NASA which is working with dwindling budgets and increased competition from private exploration, etc. All I'm saying here is that after so much time, I feel like the space program should be doing more. I'm aware and appreciative of the science (I post about science and NASA here all the time -- to minimal response until I get grumpy, by the way) and I'm aware of the technology but in order to continue as a program, these missions have to produce something more spectacular or else austerity and lack of interest will continue to kill it and, at the very least, achievements will take much longer than was anticipated years ago.
Adding... Okay, this is a really damn cool photograph.