PIA11963: New Record Five-Wheel Drive, Spirit's Sol 1856
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
 Spacecraft:  Spirit
 Instrument:  Navigation Camera
 Product Size:  4193 x 1011 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA11963.tif (4.247 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA11963.jpg (552.8 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:

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its navigation camera to take the images that have been combined into this stereo, 180-degree view of the rover's surroundings during the 1,856th Martian day, or sol, of Spirit's surface mission (March 23, 2009). The center of the view is toward the west-southwest.

The rover had driven 25.82 meters (84.7 feet) west-northwestward earlier on Sol 1856. This is the longest drive on Mars so far by a rover using only five wheels. Spirit lost the use of its right-front wheel in March 2006. Before Sol 1856, the farthest Spirit had covered in a single sol's five-wheel drive was 24.83 meters (81.5 feet), on Sol 1363 (Nov. 3, 2007).

The Sol 1856 drive made progress on a route planned for taking Spirit around the western side of the low plateau called "Home Plate." A portion of the northwestern edge of Home Plate is prominent in the left quarter of this image, toward the south.

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

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2009-03-26