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FACT CHECK
Digital arts

Fact check: Image of Mars is digital rendering, not photograph

Eleanor McCrary
USA TODAY

The claim: Post implies high-quality image of Mars rover shows missions are fake

NASA has explored Mars through the use of unmanned orbiters, rovers and satellites since the 1960s. In fact, scientists at NASA are currently working to transport samples from the red planet back to Earth.

A viral Instagram post, however, calls into question these Mars exploration missions.

The Oct. 27 post compares "surveillance" footage on Earth and Mars. On the top half of the post, there is a grainy image of a person in a ski mask with the label, "Local bank surveillance on Earth." On the bottom half, there is what appears to be a high-defintion image of the Perseverance rover with the caption, "Mars surveillance 60.2 million miles away."

Commenters took the comparison as evidence the Mars mission must not have actually happened, including one who wrote, "And they even have 2 Rovers on Mars obviously so they can take pictures of each other! Hahahha (sic) and people believe this."

The post received over 2,000 likes in two weeks, but the implied claim here is baseless.

The bottom image is not a photograph – and NASA did not claim it to be one. And this is by no means proof against the existence of the Mars missions, which have been extensively documented through photos, video and data collection.

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Mars missions are real

Evidence that Mars missions are real includes photos captured by the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter. Other types of data, like the daily temperature of the planet, are reported daily on NASA’s Mars dashboard.

NASA also has a feature called Mars Now, which allows the public to view the current locations of operating landers, rovers and orbiters around the planet. People can check the signal status of these devices in real time. The government agency includes a description of each Mars mission on its website, too.

Image is a digital rendering

Though the post uses quotes to assert someone labeled the rover image as a mars surveillance photo, it's not a real image.

The image matches a 3D animation that National Geographic published in a piece called "All Eyes on Mars" under the "sampling arm" section. It is also the cover photo for the story. The image was created by graphic artist Antoine Collignon and can be found on his website.

NASA media relations specialists Andrew Good and David Agle both said there would be no way to get an image from that angle on Mars. 

While the Perseverance rover has been known to take a selfie every now and then, the arm does not extend enough to get a photograph from the angle portrayed in the image, Agle said. 

Even the Ingenuity helicopter, which accompanies Perseverance on Mars, could not capture an image like that, Good said. While the helicopter does have cameras on board, they face down. 

Why real Mars images are high-quality

While the image in the post is not a genuine photograph from Mars, both the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter can capture high-resolution images. Those images are then uploaded to NASA's website, where the public can access them. 

"The reason that (the Mars Rover camera) has high resolution and image quality is that it is one-of-a-kind for this special task, and cost in making it is not a major issue," said Siwei Lyu, a computer science and engineering professor at the University of Buffalo.

Typical surveillance cameras, like the bank ones represented in the Instagram post, are mass-produced with commodity sensors and low-quality optics, explained Lyu. 

"Manufacturing cost is a limiting factor, so they tend to use low-end sensors and optics. That's why the quality is not good," said Lyu. "Surveillance cameras with higher resolutions comparable or surpassing that of the Mars Rover camera are widely used for security purposes of office buildings, they are just more costly for a smaller shop on the corner of the street to afford."

Our rating: Missing context

Based on our research, we rate MISSING CONTEXT the implication that a high-quality image of the Mars rover is proof the missions are fake. The image in the post is a digital rendering of the Perseverance rover, not surveillance footage. Authentic images and videos captured on Mars are of higher quality because NASA rovers, orbiters and satellites are equipped with specialized technology, experts said.

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