PIA05510: Messy Grind
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the results of grinding of its first target with the rock abrasion tool. The grinding process at 'McKittrick' generated a significant amount of fine-grained, reddish dust.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Opportunity
 Instrument:  Panoramic Camera 
Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) 
 Product Size:  1439 x 486 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05510.tif (1.742 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05510.jpg (145.1 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 the results of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's grinding of its first target with the rock abrasion tool, located on its instrument deployment device, or "arm." The target, called "McKittrick," is located on the "El Capitan" region of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars.

The grinding process at "McKittrick" has generated a significant amount of fine-grained, reddish dust. Color and spectral properties of the dust show that it may contain some fine-grained crystalline red hematite. This image is an enhanced color composite generated from three different panoramic camera filters.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Cornell

Image Addition Date:
2004-03-06