PIA11962: New Record Five-Wheel Drive, Spirit's Sol 1856 (Stereo)
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
 Spacecraft:  Spirit
 Instrument:  Navigation Camera
 Product Size:  4326 x 1201 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Other  
Information: 
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 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA11962.tif (15.59 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA11962.jpg (639.9 kB)

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Original Caption Released with Image:

Left-eye view of a color stereo pair for PIA11962
Left-eye view of a color stereo pair for PIA11962
Right-eye view of a stereo pair for PIA11962
Right-eye view of a color stereo pair for PIA11962

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its navigation camera to take the images that have been combined into this stereo, 180-degree view of the rover's surroundings during the 1,856th Martian day, or sol, of Spirit's surface mission (March 23, 2009). The center of the view is toward the west-southwest.

This view combines images from the left-eye and right-eye sides of the navigation camera. It appears three-dimensional when viewed through red-blue glasses with the red lens on the left.

The rover had driven 25.82 meters (84.7 feet) west-northwestward earlier on Sol 1856. This is the longest drive on Mars so far by a rover using only five wheels. Spirit lost the use of its right-front wheel in March 2006. Before Sol 1856, the farthest Spirit had covered in a single sol's five-wheel drive was 24.83 meters (81.5 feet), on Sol 1363 (Nov. 3, 2007).

The Sol 1856 drive made progress on a route planned for taking Spirit around the western side of the low plateau called "Home Plate." A portion of the northwestern edge of Home Plate is prominent in the left quarter of this image, toward the south.

This view is presented as a cylindrical-perspective projection with geometric seam correction.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2009-03-26