See the Real Mars Locations Visited in The Martian

Ares 3 Landing Site, acquired on Feb. 19, 2012. In The Martian by Andy Weir, stranded astronaut Mark Watney spends most of his time at the Ares 3 landing site in southern Acidalia Planitia. The book describes Acidalia as flat and easy to drive over; he even drives to the Pathfinder landing site and back.

Ares 3 Landing Site, acquired on May 17, 2015. Captured a few years later, this image takes a closer look at the Ares 3 landing site. The HiRISE camera often captures images periodically to observe any significant changes within surveyed areas.

Ares 4 Landing Site, acquired on July, 14 2015. In the novel, stranded astronaut Mark Watney travels from the Ares 3 site to the Ares 4 site where a Mars Ascent Vehicle could get him into Mars orbit to rejoin a spacecraft and return home. The Ares 4 site is on the floor of a very shallow crater in the southwestern corner of Schiaparelli Crater.

Close-up of the Ares 3 Landing Site, acquired on April 8, 2015. This image is a capture of the exact coordinates of the landing site in Andy Weir's novel, The Martian. The closeup shows some wind-blown deposits inside eroded craters.

Western Edge of Marth Crater, acquired on Aug. 1, 2015. In The Martian, Mark Watney encounters the rim of Marth Crater just as a dust storm arrives. This HiRISE image shows the nature of this terrain.