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Sunday, October 31, 2004 Mars Rovers Snap 50,000th Picture 50,000th Picture. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell The 50,000th picture taken from the surface of Mars has beamed back to Earth, and NASA couldn't be more pleased. The two rovers have captured more images than the three previous Mars-surface missions combined, and since the ten cameras each carries can travel great distances, their pictures reveal exciting new landscapes with every shot. The image that marks number 50,000 is of Spirit's calibration target, the most photographed subject on the planet. To put MER in comparison: Viking Lander 1 (1976) returned 3,542 images in 79 months. Viking Lander 2 (1976) returned 3,043 images in 43 months. Pathfinder (1997) returned 16,635 images from its lander and 628 from its rover in 12 weeks. (More info: AScribe) @ 11:26 EST