Don’t be anti-social while you wait for definitive signs of water, ancient ruins or alien life! NASA/JPL’s new app for Android and iOS, called Mars Images, lets you view the latest photos from the Mars Rover without having to sit at home, constantly whacking F5 on the official website.
The neat thing is NASA didn’t contract an outside company to build the app. Instead, it utilised one of its own computer scientists at the Jet Propulsion Lab. So if you ever meet a guy named Mark Powell while wandering the halls of JPL, be sure to thank him for this nifty piece of software.
The app can peruse new photos as well as older, archived ones. According to Wired, the library only contains shots from Opportunity, but Spirit’s happy snaps will be included in future app updates. An app is also planned for the Mars Science Laboratory and should be available towards the end of winter.
It’s a free download from the App Store or Android Market, depending on your flavour of phone. The icon’s cute, too, with its green hand and extra-terrestrial glyphs.
[App Store and Android Market, via Wired]