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Press Release Images: Spirit
26-Mar-2004
 
To the Hills!
To the Hills!

This image shows the rocky road the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit will travel to reach its ultimate destination - the Columbia Hills. The hills, seen here in the background, are located 2.3 kilometers (1.4 miles) away in the southeast direction. Rover planners estimate the journey will take about two months, or 60 sols, including stops at interesting targets along the way. As of sol 81 (March 26, 2004), Spirit has traveled 492 meters (1614 feet).

Image credit: NASA/JPL
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To the Hills! (with labels)
To the Hills! (with labels)

This image shows the rocky road the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit will travel to reach its ultimate destination - the Columbia Hills. The hills, seen here in the background, are located 2.3 kilometers (1.4 miles) away to the southeast. Rover planners estimate the journey will take about two months, or 60 sols, including stops at interesting targets along the way. As of sol 81 (March 26, 2004), Spirit has traveled 492 meters (1614 feet).

Image credit: NASA/JPL
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'Mazatzal' Rock on Crater Rim
"Mazatzal" Rock on Crater Rim

NASA's Spirit took this navigation camera image of the 2-meter-wide (6.6-foot-wide) rock called "Mazatzal" on sol 76, March 21, 2004. Scientists intend to aggressively analyze this target with Spirit's microscopic imager, Mössbauer spectrometer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometer before brushing and "digging in" with the rock abrasion tool on upcoming sols

Mazatzal stood out to scientists because of its large size, light tone and sugary surface texture. It is the largest rock the team has seen at the rim of the crater informally named "Bonneville." It is lighter-toned than previous rock targets Adirondack and Humphrey. Its scalloped pattern may be a result of wind sculpting, a very slow process in which wind-transported silt and sand abrade the rock�s surface, creating depressions. This leads scientists to believe that Mazatzal may have been exposed to the wind in this location for an extremely long time.

The name "Mazatzal" comes from a mountain range and rock formation that was deposited around 1.2 billion years ago in the Four Peaks area of Arizona.

Image credit: NASA/JPL
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Windows to Fresh Rock
Windows to Fresh Rock

This hazard-avoidance camera image was taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on sol 79 after completing a two-location brushing on the rock dubbed "Mazatzal." A coating of fine, dust-like material was successfully removed from targets named "Illinois" (right) and "New York" (left), revealing clean rock underneath. In this image, Spirit's panoramic camera mast assembly, or camera head, can be seen shadowing Mazatzal's surface. The center of the two brushed spots are approximately 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) apart and were aggressively analyzed by the instruments on the robotic arm on sol 80. On sol 81, the rover drilled into the New York target to expose the original rock underneath.

Image credit: NASA/JPL
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Getting There is Half the Fun
Getting There is Half the Fun

This map shows the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's past and future routes across the Gusev Crater floor. The solid red line shows where the rover has traveled so far, from lander to the rim of the large crater dubbed "Bonneville." The dotted red line indicates proposed future paths to the Columbia Hills. Rover team members have not yet decided which direction Spirit will travel across Bonneville's ejecta (the blanket of material expelled from it during formation) and toward the hills, as illustrated by the two diverging dotted lines. Along the way, Spirit will stop to investigate interesting targets, including craters and plain deposits. The journey to the hills is estimated to about two months, or 60 sols. The underlying image in this map was taken by the camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
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