If NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used Google Photos, it would look like this
Take a trip down six months of Mars memory lane with NASA and Google.
A Google video rendered what it would look like if NASA's Perseverance rover used Google Photos to manage its many Mars images.
Perhaps one day when we humans finally get to Mars, we'll take our Android phones and the Google Photos albums and montages we've created. Until then, we can live vicariously through a Google video that imagines what it would be like if NASA's Perseverance rover used the photo-wrangling system.
Google released the video on Wednesday in honor of the rover's six-month anniversary of landing on the red planet on Feb. 18. It's a sweet romp through images of rocks, landscapes, selfies and the Ingenuity helicopter.
Google had plenty of photos to work with in creating the video, which takes us through the rover's imagined albums, including collections labeled "Shadow Selfies," "Rocks" and "Additional Rocks."
Perseverance has taken over 125,000 photos since it arrived. If the rover really was using Google Photos to archive its images, it would probably have to spring for extra storage.
There are some good science jokes tucked into the video, including a part where the rover searches for "water" and "martians" and gets a no-results message. Dunes, however, are another story.
While the video is a clever bit of marketing for Google Photos, it's also an entertaining way for space fans to revisit and relive the rover's adventures so far. The only thing missing is Perseverance's funny photo of "butt crack rock." File that one under "Additional Rocks."
Follow CNET's 2021 Space Calendar to stay up to date with all the latest space news this year. You can even add it to your own Google Calendar.