|
|
 |
| Press Release Images: Spirit |
 |
 |
30-Jan-2004
|
Two Working Rovers on Martian Soil Expected by Saturday Morning
Full Press Release
|
 |
Adirondack Under the Microscope
This image was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit front hazard-avoidance camera after the rover's first post-egress drive on Mars Sunday, Jan. 15, 2004. Engineers drove the rover approximately 3 meters (10 feet) from the Columbia Memorial Station toward the first rock target, seen in the foreground. The football-sized rock was dubbed Adirondack because of its mountain-shaped appearance. Scientists have begun using the microscopic imager instrument at the end of the rover's robotic arm to examine the rock and understand how it formed.
Image credit: NASA/JPL
|
|
Browse Image (37 kB) |
Large (505 kB)
|
|
 |
Adirondack Under the Microscope-2
This overhead look at the martian rock dubbed Adirondack was captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera. It shows the approximate region where the rover's microscopic imager began its first close-up inspection.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
|
|
Browse Image (33 kB) |
Large (547 kB)
|
|
 |
|
 |
Adirondack's Finer Side
This close-up look at the martian rock dubbed Adirondack
was captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's
microscopic imager before Spirit stopped communicating with
Earth on the 18th martian day, or sol, of its mission. The
rock's smooth and pitted surface is revealed in this first-ever
microscopic image of a rock on another planet. The examined
patch of rock is 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across; features
within the rock as small as 1/10 of a millimeter (.04 inch) can
be detected. The rover's shadow appears at the bottom of the
image.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/US Geological Survey
|
|
Browse Image (51 kB) |
Large (694 kB)
|
|
 |
Adirondack's Inner Self
This spectrum - the first taken of a rock on another planet - reveals the different iron-containing minerals that makeup the martian rock dubbed Adirondack. It shows that Adirondack is a type of volcanic rock known as basalt. Specifically, the rock is what is called olivine basalt because in addition to magnetite and pyroxene, two key ingredients of basalt, it contains a mineral called olivine. This data was acquired by Spirit's Mössbauer spectrometer before the rover developed communication problems with Earth on the 18th martian day, or sol, of its mission.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Mainz
|
|
Browse Image |
Medium Image (100 kB) |
Large (1.4 MB)
|
|
 |
Recovering Spirit Sets Sight on Cake
These are the first images sent back from the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit since the rover experienced communications problems on the 18th sol, or martian day, of its mission. They were acquired at Gusev Crater, Mars, on Sol 26 (Jan. 29, 2004), showing that the camera's health remained excellent during Spirit's recovery. Two of Spirit's potential target rocks, which are near the rock called Adirondack, can be seen on the lower left and right. The rock on the left has been named "Cake," and the white rock on the right has been named "Blanco."
In the upper left is a color image of the panoramic camera calibration target, also known as the martian sundial. The color panel of the calibration target looks almost exactly like it did on Earth, indicating that the color shown of Mars, though approximated, is close to true color.
The monochrome image in the upper right shows the sun, magnified five times. This image was acquired by the panoramic camera as part of a routine sequence of images designed to monitor the dust abundance in the martian atmosphere. The dust abundance appears to be decreasing slowly with time, consistent with the atmosphere continuing to clear after the large dust storm of last December.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
|
|
Browse Image (47 kB) |
Large (469 kB)
|
|
|
|
JPL Image Use Policy
|
