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Spirit Retrospective: Top Shots on 10th Year Since Mars Touchdown
A Moment Frozen in Time
On May 19th, 2005, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera (Pancam) mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of Sol 489. The terrain in the foreground is the rock outcrop “Jibsheet,” a feature that Spirit has been investigating for several weeks (rover tracks are dimly visible leading up to “Jibsheet”). The floor of Gusev crater is visible in the distance, and the Sun is setting behind the wall of Gusev some 80 km (50 miles) in the distance. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Texas A&M/Cornell
Today it’s hard to imagine a Mars without Spirit.
But a decade ago, NASA’s six wheeled Spirit rover was but a promise of great things to come. And her rich Martian scientific heritage we know today was yet to ensue.
Jan. 3 marks the 10th anniversary since her touchdown on Mars on Jan. 3, 2004. Her twin sister Opportunity soft landed 3 weeks later on Jan. 24, 2004.
So here’s a collection of some of Spirit’s greatest hits on the Red Planet for all to enjoy and remember her fabulous exploits.
Read my detailed new overview marking ‘Spirits 10 Years on Mars’ – here. (…)
Read the rest of Spirit Retrospective: Top Shots on 10th Year Since Mars Touchdown (899 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2014. |
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Post tags: Gusev Crater, Mars, Mars Exploration Rover, Mars. Spirit rover, Opportunity Rover, Search for Life, Spirit Rover, Water on Mars
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Source: http://www.universetoday.com/107754/spirit-retrospective-top-shots-on-10th-year-since-mars-touchdown/
