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PIA05104: "They of the Great Rocks"
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows 'Adirondack,' the rover's first target rock. Spirit traversed the sandy martian terrain at Gusev Crater to arrive in front of the football-sized rock on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2004.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Spirit
 Instrument:  Panoramic Camera 
 Product Size:  1024 x 1024 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Cornell University 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05104.tif (3.15 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05104.jpg (199.8 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 approximate true color image taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows "Adirondack," the rover's first target rock. Spirit traversed the sandy martian terrain at Gusev Crater to arrive in front of the football-sized rock on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2004, just three days after it successfully rolled off the lander. The rock was selected as Spirit's first target because its dust-free, flat surface is ideally suited for grinding. Clean surfaces also are better for examining a rock's top coating. Scientists named the angular rock after the Adirondack mountain range in New York. The word Adirondack is Native American and means "They of the great rocks."

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Cornell

Image Addition Date:
2004-01-19