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PIA05101: Virtual Rover Drives Toward Rock
This image shows a screenshot from the software used by engineers to test and drive NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. The rover drove toward its first rock target, a mountain-shaped rock called Adirondack.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Spirit
 Instrument:  Navigation Camera 
 Product Size:  1264 x 860 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05101.tif (1.994 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05101.jpg (105.3 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:
This image shows a screenshot from the software used by engineers to test and drive the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. The software simulates the rover's movements across the martian terrain, helping to plot a safe course. Here, engineers simulated Spirit's first post-egress drive on Mars Sunday. The 3-meter (10-foot) drive totaled approximately 30 minutes, including time to stop and take images. The rover drove toward its first rock target, a mountain-shaped rock called Adirondack. The blue line denotes the path of the rover's "belly button," as engineers like to call it, as the rover drove toward Adirondack. The virtual 3-D world around the rover was built from images taken by Spirit's stereo navigation cameras. Regions for which the rover has not yet acquired 3-D data are represented in beige.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
2004-01-19