Yes, pretty much. See in 2003 Mars was the closest to the Sun (perihelion or something) and Earth was the farthest (aphelion). In addition Jupiter was on the far side of the solar system and thus was pulling the least on Mars so yeah Mars was pretty much as close as it'll get (until it breaks orbit and slams into us
) but it comes close every two years or so.
I'm still waiting for it to get closer before I drag out the big scope.
EDIT *now with pictures!!!!*: As we can see
here, Mars and Earth are pretty close with Jupiter and its gravity on the far side. That was 2003. Now jump to
2005 and you can see that Mars is again close though not as close and Jupiter is not as opposed as it was in 2003. This all makes minor differences but Mars will still be a great show. Just not media/spam worthy.
(earth is of course the blue ball and Mars is the red one)