Pictures from Mars

I grew up as an information hound. Lacking the internet in my high school days I would often hang out in the library looking things up. One day I found a catalog from the US Government Printing Office with all sorts of stuff at reasonable prices. I ordered a brochure with pictures of Mars from the 1970s Viking Missions to Mars. A few weeks later came some pretty color images including a stereographic (3D) image of the red planet.

Fast forward over two decades later. Another Mars mission. More pictures. The pictures haven't changed much but I can access them far easier and quicker than before. When you look at those Mars pictures realize that the great technological advance is not so much in NASA getting pictures from Mars but in NASA getting those pictures to you.