PIA11974: Time for a Change; Spirit's View on Sol 1843
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
 Spacecraft:  Spirit
 Instrument:  Navigation Camera
 Product Size:  7466 x 983 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA11974.tif (7.347 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA11974.jpg (938.9 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its navigation camera to take the images that have been combined into this full-circle view of the rover's surroundings during the 1,843rd Martian day, or sol, of Spirit's surface mission (March 10, 2009). South is in the middle. North is at both ends.

The rover had driven 36 centimeters downhill earlier on Sol 1854, but had not been able to get free of ruts in soft material that had become an obstacle to getting around the northeastern corner of the low plateau called "Home Plate."

The Sol 1854 drive, following two others in the preceding four sols that also achieved little progress in the soft ground, prompted the rover team to switch to a plan of getting around Home Plate counterclockwise, instead of clockwise. The drive direction in subsequent sols was westward past the northern edge of Home Plate.

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

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2009-04-05