Mars Index - Top Ten MER Images - Top Raw Images
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Two parallel tracks left by the rover's wheels show darker soil beneath a lighter-colored, dust-covered, rock-strewn surface. The pair of tracks extends downward from the flat horizon at the top of the image toward the bottom front edge of the image.
Santa Anita Panorama
07/16/2004
Spirit
Like the thoroughbreds racing at Santa Anita Park, Spirit shows off its champion character, having gone far past its designed distance.
This color mosaic taken on May 21, 25 and 26, 2004, by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit was acquired from a position roughly three-fourths the way between "Bonneville Crater" and the base of the "Columbia Hills." The area is within a low thermal inertia unit (an area that heats up and cools off quickly) identified from orbit by the Mars Odyssey thermal emission imaging system instrument. The rover was roughly 600 meters (1,968 feet) from the base of the hills.

Shown here is a cropped portion of the full mosaic referred to as the "Santa Anita Panorama." The full mosaic is comprised of 64 pointings and 384 images, acquired with six of the panoramic camera's color filters, including one designed specifically to allow comparisons between orbital and surface brightness data. The mosaic is an approximate true-color rendering constructed from images using the camera's 750-, 530- and and 480-nanometer filters, and is presented at the full resolution of the camera.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell