PIA07258: Meandering Tracks on "Husband Hill" (Polar)
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
 Spacecraft:  Spirit
 Instrument:  Navigation Camera
 Product Size:  4153 x 4153 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA07258.tif (7.739 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA07258.jpg (990.5 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 360-degree, stereo panorama of a section of the "Columbia Hills" shows meandering, crisscrossing wheel tracks that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit left behind while using its scientific instruments to analyze a new class of rocks in Gusev Crater on Mars. Because Spirit has been experiencing a high rate of slip on the sandy, sloped terrain on this flank of "Husband Hill," scientists are directing the rover to check its progress often to avoid getting a rock stuck in one of its wheel wells.

Rocks in this region are higher in phosphorus than other rocks that Spirit has examined.

This view is a mosaic of frames that Spirit took with its navigation camera during the rover's 358th and 359th martian days, or sols, (Jan. 3 and 4, 2005). It is presented here in a polar projection with geometric seam correction.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
2005-01-13