Looks like moon dust to me, which implies the shaft has only just opened up (no wind or anything to shift piles of dust like that on the moon).

Maybe those rocks aren't floating, but are being tossed up by whatever mechanisms are opening the hellmouth up?

Alright, getting things started:

Something I noticed immediately were Hellmouth and Ocean of Storms. Possibly the same location from different angles. The structures seem relatively similar, the giant opening in the ground is in approximately the right place, both have roughly the same palette, and both feature floating rocks.

I think the IGN guys in their post-reveal show may have mentioned that both of those shots are, in fact, on the Moon.

Jetpacks in zero-g.

There was a level like this for Star Wars Republic Commando where you had to investigate a derelict star destroyer. I imagine this derelict will be from the previous age of humans, like today if we explored a derelict VW Microbus.

The Vault is by far my favourite of the images released so far.

There seems to be some metal scraps in there, rather than just gold. I think finding tech from a time gone by would be something of value, whether it's something still usable, or a step toward learning about humanity's past, and throughout the golden age.

I wonder what in that vault is actually still valuable for mankind. The gold (?) in the room is obviously not at all attractive to the Guardians there, so what is?

Au contr...I give up. I can barely use English, let alone other language word things.

Anyway, if they're reproducing high-tech weapons from the Traveller, then it's still entirely possible that gold is still valuable. I remember back in the days where laptops were oversized word processors, there was a nation in Europe (which escapes me) that was making a pretty hefty profit from recycling PCs. My memory thing is foggy, but I think it was something like "get a gold coin out of ten computers."

Gold is still used in a great deal of high tech devices, but we have streamlined the process quite a bit so far less is used. That said, there's no telling how much might be handy in reverse-engineering Traveler weapons or the like. You can't expect all palladium and fun metals in everything.

As mentioned by others, it could be a place to store any metals that are found in the offhand chance that "HEY THIS IS USEFUL." Gold may be useful and collected, but only finding out later that "Yeah, but only in minute quantities."

Then there's also the fact that a society needs money. This is one thing that the Spanish anarchists (who desperately tried to disband it) quickly found out: you need a way to put value on the the work that you do. And, sadly, that money needs to have something to back it up. A precious metal with little industrial use is handy for that. (Though the feudal Japanese method of basing their monetary system off of enough rice to live by was a rather ingenious way of doing it.)

If you ever get the chance, read Connections by James Burke. It has a rather wonderful passage on how gold and the discovery of the testing properties of schist (aka touchstone) completely revolutionized money, politics, industry, warfare, science, and pretty much Western civilization.

Anyway, back on target.

There's also the fact that it's arguably pretty. If there's a ruling class that's into that, this may be their Scrooge McDuck room. I would not suggest diving in. Owie. Seriously, cartoon physics man.

Finally, that one pic gives me the most shades of Marathon out of all of them. I just look at it and grin. Some of the statues(?) in the background give me flashbacks to one certain piece of concept art...

Holy crap I use way too many words and ramble too much.

I'm probably reaching here, but those orb like structures (greenhouses? anger domes?!) kinda remind me of the shots of the windmills and the battered orb structures from O Brave New World:

Though, as Duncan pointed out (since I yoinked those images from him), that first image is from Bungie's Siggraph ’09 presentation, Lighting Research at Bungie, so those could've just been made to show lighting through moving structures (windmills) and structures that were partiality destroyed (orb structures).

...OR Mars has/had windmills for power because it's a desolate wasteland and orb like greenhouses so the people that lived there could have some sort of vegetation for self-sustaining themselves. The windmills' power lines even somewhat match the power lines connecting the buildings there in the concept art.

So maybe orb like structures are prevalent throughout Mars for its aesthetic/background (or that crack I just [figuratively] smoked was really good)?

Well, Mars has a very sparse atmosphere, I seriously doubt you'd get much energy with a windmill at those pressures. The image likely over-exaggerates the effect of sand buildup, that kind of movement of sand dunes probably doesn't happen on any sort of human timescales on Mars.

More striking to me were the dead-looking tree-things growing on parts of the building (in particular, the right hand side of the image). Lends some credence to a greenhouse somewhere inside. Makes me wonder what sort of things were being grown there, too.

Also, the way the image is put together makes me think of an artist taking an in-game screenshot of 3D assets, and then arting over those to help establish feel and aesthetics of the environment. A lot of the concept art seems to have this blend of 3D and 2D about it.

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Even though it's an early piece of concept art, I am hoping that this image means that our characters will have faces that you can see at some point.

What immediately jumped out at me was the emblem on the tail of the space fighter. We already know space fighters are going to be a thing, but this also lends evidence to there being an emblem creator for Destiny, much like there was for Halo 2 onwards.

Also interesting to point out is that the space fighter does not have wheels, it has landing struts ending in pads. The image generally implies the idea that you can fly and land your space fighter anywhere, as opposed to needing some sort of runway for it.

This works well with everything else we know, such as being able to fly around the solar system visiting other planets and moons.

well, the IGN article that came out a couple weeks ago said our guardians would be crazy customizable, and they specifically included "face" as a customization option... So yeah, I wouldn't be shocked haha

Is it just me or are the bad guys in the Dark Patrol image all smoking or releasing some kind of... something? I hadn't noticed that before, but maybe it points to something more sinister about them? Well, more sinister than wanting to destroy humanity that is. :p

I can't recall where I read it (Mailsack?), but the Fallen are described as having some etherealness about them, in particular when they died.

Is it just me or are the bad guys in the Dark Patrol image all smoking or releasing some kind of... something? I hadn't noticed that before, but maybe it points to something more sinister about them?

They are pushing smoking on humanity! SO EVIL!

it also looks like there is some type of green smoke, gas or fog around there feet.

The damage at the bottom of the traveler doesn't imply that the humans did the damage. The traveler is described as our protector (presumably from some sort of alien force)

Why would the traveler sit over earth with it's good side facing the humans. It serves as a much better protector with it's good side out.

or maybe witches?

I hate you.

I'll be over here, watching that whole friggin' episode just to get it out of my head.

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Yes, from an Edge article they talk about being able to earn items in Faction Wars for the campaign part of the game.

I posted about it a little while ago here if you want to see a couple other things from the issue.