From the commencement of spacecraft exlporation of Mars, there have apparently been loud -- though not terribly persusasive -- voices arguing against visually imaging Mars, just as there continue to be some in the field who insist that "color" images are not "scientifically useful." Of course we saw throughout the Viking era and afterwards, that bogus color images were used. The flaming red Mars so fashionable then never existed and doesn't exist now. But how often was the public assured that those bogus images were "true color?" And how often do more contemporary color images of the Martian surface vary wildly in hue from one another? We've all seen the "yellow Mars" images, or the "green sky" images. We've seen the "pinky" ones and the "orange" ones. Believe whatever you want -- or disbelieve them all, or do like Robert Shepherd and Woodlock and others do and process your own color versions...

Except with THEMIS, you can't. With few exceptions, only one band is being released.

The pictures are wonderful and it's great to have at least one release every day. But where are the color images? What's the problem?

Would anyone with the THEMIS program care to explain?

Cheers, B R Felix