Cammo for military vehicle operating in martian conditions

[Goonie]

Hi guys,

From some time now I'm planning to build a Martian escort truck and I wanted to do it at least a bit plausible, but I've stuck with basic color (dk orange, desert rose or just basic sand) not to mention the type of cammo which could be used in about next 40 years in future (one color or maybe pixel cammo)...

[Buzzbomb]

My first thought is...who are you hiding from ?

[Cliffy B]

Martian = red desert so I'd do rusty reds and oranges in a 3 tone disruptive scheme.

[GTX_Admin]

Try these

[Frank3k]

The color on the surface depends on a lot of factors, but the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity color cameras provide the best "real" color renditions of the surface to date:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

If you look at the raw images from the Mastcam: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/ (towards the bottom) you'll get plenty of color images.
Here's a good mosaic with near and far scenes:

[Kerick]

I see lots of rusty browns for the sand and dark greys and black for the basaltic boulders. Perhaps a version of the Desert Storm chocolate chip uniform pattern?

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Paint it haze grey so it looks like the bare rocks :)

[GTX_Admin]

Or maybe even borrow something from this classic shot:



Messerschmidt over the North African Desert

***Just in case the image does not show up you can click on the html and see it in a new page. -- jjf

[mrvr6]

Or maybe even borrow something from this classic shot:

link is dead mate

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Linked image did not want to display for me as well until I opened Greg's post and copied the link to a new window.  Then it shows up here on the forums and in the new page.  Just in case it is not showing for anyone else the image is provided as the html in Greg's post and you can click on it and it should show the Me-109/Bf-109 in low-level flight over the North African desert. 

[Goonie]

First of all many thanks for helping me to sort this think up . 
I'll probably stick to the images made by Curiosity, so 2 or 3 hues of brown + dk grey.
That cammo on messerschmit also is interesting (btw. I've remember to saw that picture during primary school somewhere in one of the History books ) but image of mars surface linked by Frank3k looks just more accurate, nevertheless one more time thanks for response :)

My first thought is...who are you hiding from ?

Well I thought about placing the model in first stages of mars terraforming (so still deadly atmosphere, low air pressure and other nasty mars characteristics are present) where transport between mines and cities or some processing facilities will take place by trucks or railroads, probably on quite long distances, so it's highly possible that some pirates or other amateurs of acquiring goods in not exactly the legal manner will appear. That's why i thought that converting bunch of trucks into platforms packing some serious defensive arsenal would be quite common practice out there

[GTX_Admin]

Linked image did not want to display for me as well until I opened Greg's post and copied the link to a new window.  Then it shows up here on the forums and in the new page.  Just in case it is not showing for anyone else the image is provided as the html in Greg's post and you can click on it and it should show the Me-109/Bf-109 in low-level flight over the North African desert.

Or I could just fix the original post!

[Old Wombat]

I like this one!

[GTX_Admin]

 :) :)

[GTX_Admin]

Or possibly this scheme:

[deathjester]

....And these would be the recruiting posters for the Martian Defence Forces?? 
...
...
They're gonna need bigger recruiting centres!!!!!

[Buzzbomb]

Did a similar style Mars Survey vehicle some years back for a Starship Modeller online comp
http://www.starshipmodeler.org/contest10/dio_05.htm

But I went the complete opposite direction in that I went Hi Vis against the Martian Surface.

Like the Greg and Guy interpretation of displaying colour schemes though

[Goonie]

Did a similar style Mars Survey vehicle some years back for a Starship Modeller online comp
http://www.starshipmodeler.org/contest10/dio_05.htm

But I went the complete opposite direction in that I went Hi Vis against the Martian Surface.

That's great model you have build it resembles me a bit that explore vehicle from Hadleys Hope colony in "Aliens" movie.

Like the Greg and Guy interpretation of displaying colour schemes though

So do I  :)

[Volkodav]

Would the British army pink panthers work?  The scheme that is not the air breathing engines.

[Gingie]

in the mosiac photo, it looks like Mars has an atmosphere. I always thought the sky in mars would be black, even during mid day, like on the moon?

[Frank3k]

Mars has  a thin atmosphere, the pressure is about 0.6% that of the Earth's, so you would need a pressure suit on the surface. The pressure varies by time of day/ year and altitude, although nowhere is it near Earth. In most places, it's too low to allow liquid water on the surface. Water exists only as ice or water vapor although it's possible to have very, very briny water as a liquid.

Mars used to have a thicker atmosphere. About 1/3 is frozen ( as dry ice) in the poles. Early on, billions of years ago, it had a much thicker atmosphere (there are signs of torrential floods and pooling from that time). Most of the atmosphere was lost by a combination of low surface gravity, impacts and the effects of solar radiation.

There will be a test later.

[Goonie]

Would the British army pink panthers work?

Initially I thought that this color scheme could be adequate, but now, after digging throught the raw images from Curiosity mission, I don't think so.
Surface of Mars seems to be more brown and grey even from quite a long distance:

[Frank3k]

I think a camo with any of those colors should work. Some real life examples:

The Opportunity rover (which has been operating for 10 years on Mars) has gotten very dusty at times. Here's a selfie:



From the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover

Its sister ship, Spirit (which died a few years ago):


Opportunity is currently on a hill and the winds have cleaned the arrays:


Back in 2006, it was photographed from orbit near Victoria crater. The soil colors are not realistic:




The first two rover selfies above may have been brightened. Light levels would be closer to the Curiosity rover picture or the Opportunity picture above. The color difference shows the difficulty of color matching the actual "I'm standing on the surface of Mars" appearance of the surface. The Curiosity image is probably the most accurate rendition; the Spirit and Opportunity cameras have color filters that are not exact matches to the sensitivity of the human eye. Curiosity is probably closer to what we would see.

Here's a beautiful image from Curiosity (processed to make it brighter):

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=32553

[Old Wombat]

Here's a beautiful image from Curiosity (processed to make it brighter):

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=32553

Could be any number of the (few) less-red regions of Australia's deserts.

[GTX_Admin]

yep - been in a few places like that.