Mars Exploration Rover Spirit Landing Site at Gusev Crater
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Mars Exploration Rover Spirit Landing Site at Gusev Crater
PSP_001513_1655  Science Theme: Future Exploration/Landing Sites
This HiRISE image shows the landing site of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. The impact crater in the upper left-hand portion of the image is “Bonneville Crater,” which was investigated by Spirit shortly after landing. In the lower right-hand portion of the image is “Husband Hill,” a large hill that Spirit climbed and where it spent much of its now nearly three-year mission. (View the full cutout.)

The bright irregularly-shaped feature in area “A” of the image is Spirit’s parachute, now lying on the Martian surface. Near the parachute is the cone-shaped “backshell” that helped protect Spirit’s lander during its seven-month journey to Mars. The backshell appears relatively undamaged by its impact with the martian surface. Wrinkles and folds in the parachute fabric are clearly visible.

Area “B” of the image shows Spirit’s lander. The crater in the upper left-hand portion of the image, just to the northwest of the lander, is the one that the Mars Exploration Rover team named “Sleepy Hollow.”

Area “C” shows the damaged remnant of the heat shield that protected the vehicle during the high-speed entry through the Martian atmosphere. The heat shield impacted the surface after being separated from the vehicle during the final stages of the descent.

Area “D” of the image shows the current location of Spirit. Toward the top of the image is “Home Plate,” a plateau of layered rocks that Spirit explored during the early part of its third year on Mars. Spirit itself is clearly seen just to the southeast of Home Plate. Also visible are the tracks made by the rover before it arrived at its current location.

Written by: Steve Squyres  (2 December 2006)


This is a stereo pair with PSP_001777_1650.
 
Acquisition date
22 November 2006

Local Mars time
15:29

Latitude (centered)
-14.593°

Longitude (East)
175.499°

Spacecraft altitude
260.7 km (162.0 miles)

Original image scale range
27.1 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~81 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
15.8°

Phase angle
73.6°

Solar incidence angle
60°, with the Sun about 30° above the horizon

Solar longitude
139.1°, Northern Summer

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  96°
Sub-solar azimuth:  35.0°
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RGB: red-green-blue
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Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
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USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.