The most recent self-portrait of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit
shows the solar panels still gleaming in the Martian sunlight and carrying
only a thin veneer of dust two years after the rover landed and began
exploring the red planet. Spirit's panoramic camera took this mosaic of
images on the 586th sol, or Martian day, of exploration (Aug. 27, 2005),
as part of a mammoth undertaking that resulted in the largest panorama
ever acquired by Spirit ( http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20051205a.html;
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03610). This image is a subset
of that panorama, showing just the rover. The vertical projection used
here produces the best view of the rover deck itself, though it distorts
the ground and antennas somewhat.
This image is an approximate true-color rendering that combines images
taken through the camera's 600-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 480-nanometer
filters.
