After a week of communications problems, Spirit took and returned this image on Jan. 28, 2004. Taken by the rover's front hazard identification camera, it shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack.
This image shows one of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's first breathtaking views of the martian landscape after its successful landing at Meridiani Planum on Mars. On the left, the rover's mast can be seen in a stowed position. Opportunity landed Jan. 24, 2004 at approximately 9:05 p.m. PST. The image was taken by the rover's navigation camera.
This image mosaic taken by Spirit's panoramic camera, on the 16th martian day, or sol, of the mission, shows the rover's landing site, the Columbia Memorial Station at Gusev Crater. To the right are the east hills, about 2 miles away from the lander. A portion of Spirit's solar panels appears in the foreground.
This image taken by the rover's hazard-identification camera shows Spirit probing its first target rock, "Adirondack." At the time this picture was snapped, the rover had begun analyzing the rock with its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer determine the elemental composition of martian rocks and soil.
This approximate true color image taken by Spirit's panoramic camera shows "Adirondack," the rover's first target rock. Spirit traversed the sandy martian terrain at Gusev Crater to arrive in front of the football-sized rock on Jan. 18, 2004. It was chosen as Spirit's first target because its dust-free, flat surface is ideally suited for grinding.
This image taken by Spirit's panoramic camera shows "Sashimi" and "Sushi" - two rocks that scientists considered investigating before choosing "Adirondack" as the rover's first subject.
NASA's Spirit rover reached out with its versatile robotic arm Jan. 16, 2004, and examined a patch of fine-grained martian soil with a microscope at the end of the arm. The microscopic imager acts like a field geologist's hand lens in examining structural details of rocks and soils.
The first patch of soil examined by the rover's microscopic imager can be seen in this image taken by Spirit's panoramic camera, Jan. 16, 2004. The rover can be seen to the right.
This close-up look at a 1.2-inch-wide patch of martian soil is the sharpest image ever taken of another planet. Scientists say the alien soil seems like clumpy cocoa powder. The upper left corner appears brighter because it is illuminated by direct sunlight.
Taken during testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this close-up image of a penny shows the degree to which Spirit's microscopic imager can zoom in on a target. The penny appears exactly as it would be if it were placed under the microscopic imager while on Mars.
This overhead polar image, taken by Spirit's navigation camera, was captured after the rover took a few baby rolls away from the spacecraft that bore it millions of miles to Mars. The empty lander, now named the Columbia Memorial Station, is to the right of the rover.
New images confirm that the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully rolled off its lander platform on Jan. 15, 2004. This image from the rover's front hazard identification camera shows the rover's view of the martian landscape from its new position 3 feet northwest of the lander.
In the first time it has ever touched martian soil, this image from the Spirit's rear hazard identification camera shows the rover's hind view of the lander platform, its nest for the past 12 "sols," or martian day, Jan. 15, 2004. The rover is approximately 3 feet in front of the airbag-cushioned lander, facing northwest. Note the tracks left in the soil by the rover's wheels, all six of which have rolled off the lander.
This image shows the view from the Spirit rover after it successfully completed a 115-degree turn to face northwest, the direction it was to take to roll off the lander. The image was taken by the front hazard avoidance camera, Jan. 14, 2004.
This image was taken by the rover's navigation camera after it completed a 115-degree turn to face northwest, Jan. 14, 2004.
This image from Spirit's hazard avoidance camera shows the rover in its near-final turned position on the lander at Gusev Crater, Jan. 14, 2004. At this point, the rover has turned 95 degrees.
This image released Jan. 14, 2004, shows where Earth would set on the martian horizon, from Spirit's perspective if it were facing northwest atop its lander. Earth cannot be seen in this image, but NASA engineers have mapped its location. The image mosaic was taken by the hazard-identification camera onboard the rover.