West Valley Panorama from the Spirit Rover on Mars
Explanation:
What does Mars look like from here?
Last September, before hiking across rugged and
slippery terrain to reach its winter hibernation point,
the
robotic Spirit rover
climbed a small plateau known as
Home Plate
and captured the spectacular vista
pictured above.
Part of the
curious flat-topped Home Plate is visible as the
light colored landscape across the panorama's foreground.
On the image left, visible about eight kilometers in the distance, is
Grissom Hill,
while on the left foreground is rock strewn
Tsiolkovski Ridge.
On the right, at about 800 meters distant, is
Husband Hill,
a feature already explored by Spirit and notable as the
highest point visible in the westward looking panorama.
In the inset is a close-up of a
small protrusion informally dubbed Little Bigfoot,
a motionless rock that has
drawn
some
attention for it
superficial appearance to a
humanoid life form.
Tenacious image explorers might locate Little
Bigfoot
towards the front left of the
high resolution panorama.
Spirit successfully
reached
its energy-conserving
winter haven in December.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
