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As we've all seen from the videos of NASA with their robots exploring in a desert like surface of Mars. But is it real? since there's no actual footage that came out the landing of the certain robots or satellite or whatever they sent there.

Basti
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    What do you mean with "there's no actual footage that came out the landing of the certain robots"? Do you mean there's no images/video that another party (say, a different satellite) took of the landing? Or do you expect a lander to take images/videos during the whole descent, from orbit until landing? – DarkDust Sep 07 '18 at 09:24
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    Now that we have a solution to Moonhoaxarians (How do we know the Apollo Moon landings are real?) it seems that the Borg have adapted Questions about "whatevers" are off-topic, can you try to improve your question a bit. If there is something specific that you have done some reading about and have a question on, please focus on that. Stack Exchange strongly discourages open-ended questions like this. Thanks! – uhoh Sep 07 '18 at 09:31
  • Some of the terrain on Mars looks like some of the desert terrain in Western Australia. A mischievous thought occasionally comes to mind that all the Mars pictures were taken by some drunk patrons out the back of the pub in Meekatharra. But, .., as with all conspiracy theories associated with NASA I prefer to trust NASA than any space exploration deniers. – Fred Sep 07 '18 at 09:31
  • @DarkDust - I mean, I expect a lander to take images/videos during the whole descent, from orbit until landing. – timmack Sep 07 '18 at 09:47
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    It seems all space agencies around the world are conspiring to cover up the fact that there are NASA robots on Mars... Consider the Russian viking landings, where NASA helped to cover up, and the Indian MOM mission that helps to cover for Curiosity... yeah sure. – AtmosphericPrisonEscape Sep 07 '18 at 09:48
  • @Basti, Stack Exchange is a little different than other sites. You might consider asking something simpler first, for example "What would be the technical challenges, mass, and data storage penalties for the Mars Science Laboratory to record the entire video of it's own landing?" I think that question would be much better received than this one. – uhoh Sep 07 '18 at 10:59
  • to those who would like to close this question, I understand that the question feels little bit like trolling (at least to myself), nevertherless I find the material provided in the answer very worthful to know. I think if doubt is not crossing borders of respect it should be allowed. – J. Doe Sep 07 '18 at 12:37
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    @J.Doe I think that the "But is it real?" puts the question firmly in Skeptics SE and simply not a good fit to this site. Try to imagine what this site would be like if "But is it real?" questions became on-topic here. OP certainly has the option to improve the question, or delete it and ask a modified version. My comments above might provide one way to do that. – uhoh Sep 07 '18 at 14:51
  • Re I mean, I expect a lander to take images/videos during the whole descent, from orbit until landing. Now why would you expect that? Just to prove that the machine has truly done it? This wouldn't appease the disillusioned who think we've never gone into space / sent machines to other planets. They would claim that this too was invented in Hollywood. There is no arguing with crackpots; they're immune to logic and evidence. – David Hammen Sep 07 '18 at 18:02

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If you're implying that the photos from the various Mars rovers were taken in an Earth desert (say Australia) this isn't possible as the coloration of the sky is different and most importantly the apparent magnitude, size, and coloration of the sun is different than it is on Earth (because Mars is further away). Also, there's pictures of sunsets on Mars which are different than Earth sunsets due to the thin and different composition of Mars' atmosphere. Also, some pictures from the surface of Mars showcase the moons of Mars: Phobos and Deimos. Earth doesn't have these so they wouldn't show up.

If you're asking why no footage is taken during the descent, it actually is! On the curiosity Rover, the MARDI camera, or MARs Descent Imager photos are taken and analyzed during the descent to avoid landing on rocks and boulders.The video can be watched here!

Attaching HD landing cameras to Mars rovers and Landers isn't really a priority as the main goal of the mission is science, not PR. Having a camera record multiple hours of footage, store that footage, and then transmit it back is very expensive in dollars but also in engineering work. You need large amounts of storage, a radiation hardened camera, and a computer capable of handling it. All this extra added cost and weight can't be justified by the scientists because it gives them very little scientific data. However, this is probably going to change on upcoming Mars missions as technology has progressed quite a bit since Curiosity landed. Remember, Curiosity was launched in 2011 and constructed in the mid 2000's and since then camera, storage, and computer technology in general has increased at an incredible speed.

Dragongeek
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  • that actual footage maybe manufactured by a video blogger or folks from Hollywood. Would that be possible too? – timmack Sep 07 '18 at 10:16
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    @timmack If factual information is a matter of belief for you, there is nothing I can do, say, or show you to convince you otherwise. – Dragongeek Sep 07 '18 at 10:19
  • I know I understand your point and I don't dismiss the fact that you presented although I have some doubts since the video is so short and can be manufactured as well by somebody that's why I asked if it's possible that somebody could create that video like that. – timmack Sep 07 '18 at 10:23
  • Also I wonder why NASA didn't go back to the moon, that's also a mystery for me. Any thoughts of that? – timmack Sep 07 '18 at 10:24
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    @timmack, For all I know, you're manufactured. You could be a lizard person. There's no proof that you're not a lizard person (and I haven't looked). If you provided any proof that you're not a lizard, I would just claim you manufactured it and that you're "hiding the truth". See how silly this sounds? This is similar to your argument. Most questions such as your "why haven't we gone back to the moon" can be answered with just a little research. – Dragongeek Sep 07 '18 at 10:51
  • @timmack, As for the moon question I'd you'd spent just a couple minutes looking, you'd find that you're wrong in even asking your question. The LRO launched in 2009 and in December, there is a Chinese Rover landing. There have been tons of missions to the moon since Apollo. – Dragongeek Sep 07 '18 at 10:53
  • having that said, I love that logic of your argument. Also you talk about research, not all the info you read on the internet are facts and genuine. But I believe you. You may got the fact so I'm convinced now. – timmack Sep 07 '18 at 11:08
  • This appears to be a Spaceflight101 source for the full resolution version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyBffhiOuVU I think it took a while to get the data back then correct the image for motion and distortion, but I haven't read further yet. – uhoh Sep 07 '18 at 14:57
  • Downvoted just because these kinds of questions are best closed and deleted rather than answered. – David Hammen Sep 07 '18 at 18:03
  • @Dragongeek How about this video that debunks your belief about the moon landing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syVP6zDZN7I – timmack Jan 02 '19 at 14:39
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Mars has been visited by missions from NASA, ESA and the Soviet Union/Russia. The first missions by NASA were in the middle of the Cold War. If the Russians had noticed anything wrong (like transmissions from Viking not coming from Mars) they'd have published that as it'd have been a propaganda coup. Science return from all these missions has been consistent with each other.

More recently, ESA's Mars Express orbiter was used to relay data from NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers and Phoenix.

To pull this all off would require a giant, worldwide conspiracy that managed to remain secret for 50 years. That is very unlikely, it'd be easier to run a real Mars program.

Hobbes
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