Technology > Scientists Release Rover Panoramic Photo

Scientists Release First Full-Color Panoramic Picture of Landscape Taken by NASA's Spirit Rover

This handout provided by NASA shows the first full-color panoramic picture, released Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, of the landscape of Mars, taken by the Mars rover Spirit from its lookout point. The image shows the rover's tracks in the dust, at right, plains

On Thursday, scientists released the first full-color panoramic picture of the landscape taken by the rover from its lookout point, showing the rover's tracks in the dust, flat plains of the surrounding Gusev Crater region, rugged terrain dubbed "the geologic promised land" by one scientist, distant plateaus on the crater rim and more hills.

The solar-powered Spirit's yearlong ascent to the peak of Husband Hill part of the low-ranging Columbia Hills was a major feat for the six-wheel rover, which along with its twin, Opportunity, landed on opposite sides of Mars in January 2004 to look for evidence of the past history of water on the cold, dusty world.

The rover reached the 270-foot-high summit about the height of the Statue of Liberty on Aug. 21.

"That's no Mount Everest but for a little rover this was a heck of a climb," mission principal investigator Steve Squyres said in a briefing televised from NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"This is an unprecedented engineering robotic accomplishment," he said.

The panorama will probably be "one of the signature accomplishments of the mission," Squyres said.

Since arriving at its destination, Spirit has been snapping pictures and analyzing the soil with its robotic arm. In coming weeks, the remote-control geologist will roam the summit, studying the makeup of the rocks to determine if they were once water-soaked and look for other clues that the past environment might have been favorable to life.

Scientists hope Spirit's new vantage point will provide a deeper understanding of how Husband Hill formed. During its climb to the top, Spirit passed by layered rocks on the side of the hill that showed evidence of being altered by water, said Ray Arvidson, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis and deputy principal investigator of the rover mission.

The rocks, which appeared to be carried to the site by wind or volcanic eruption, were granular and deposited in a set of layers that have since been eroded and exposed, Arvidson said in an interview.

"It all pretty much says Mars was a place, particularly early in time, where liquid water was abundant at or close to the surface," Arvidson said.

Scientists are particularly interested in an inner basin to the south of the summit that contains an outcrop named "home plate" because it looks like a baseball diamond from orbit. Scientists hope to drive the rover down to explore the basin after it finishes its job at the summit.

Meanwhile, halfway around the Red Planet, Opportunity is recovering from a recent computer glitch that caused it to shut down and power up while surveying the Meridiani Planum region.

Both rovers, whose activities are counted in Martian-length days called "sols," have long outlasted their primary, three-month missions.

"Today is day 591 of our 90-day mission to Mars," Squyres said of Spirit.

The rovers are managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Associated Press Writer John Antczak contributed to this report.

On the Net:

Mars mission: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home

2005-09-03