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Press Release Images: Spirit |
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10-Mar-2004
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A Long Way From Home
This pair of pieced-together images was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's rear navigation camera on March 6, 2004. It reveals the long and rocky path of nearly 240 meters (787 feet) that Spirit had traveled since safely arriving at Gusev Crater on Jan. 3, 2004.
The lander can still be seen in the distance, but will never be "home" again for the journeying rover. This image is also a tribute to the effectiveness of the autonomous navigation system that the rovers use during parts of their martian drives. Instead of driving directly through the "hollow" seen in the middle right of the image, the autonomous navigation system guided Spirit around the high ridge bordering the hollow.
In the two days after these images were taken, Spirit has traveled roughly 60 meters (197 feet) farther toward its destination at the crater nicknamed "Bonneville."
Image credit: NASA/JPL
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A Glimpse of What's to Come
This 360-degree navigation camera mosaic was taken by Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on March 9, 2004, after a drive that brought the rover to less than 20 meters (66 feet) from the rim of the crater nicknamed "Bonneville." The vista provides a glimpse of the far side of the rim. It also includes a close-up look at a 1-meter-tall (3.3-foot-tall) rock called "The Hole Point," which has served as a beacon for scientists and rover operators in guiding the rover toward the crest of this rim.
Scientists are anxious for Spirit to get to the very edge of the crater rim and peer down inside. From that vantage, Spirit will examine the floor and walls of the crater, where layers may be exposed that are older than the surface material on the terrain outside of the crater.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/USGS
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