Mars Rover Photo Journal: Spirit Achieves Mission Success, Mar. 16 - April 2, 2004

	NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took this panoramic camera image on sol 86 (March 31, 2004) before driving 36 meters (118 feet) on sol 87 toward its future destination, the Columbia Hills. This is probably the last panoramic camera image that Spirit will take from the high rim of "Bonneville" crater, and provides an excellent view of the ejecta-covered path the rover has journeyed thus far. The lander can be seen toward the upper right of the frame and is approximately 321 meters (1060 feet) away from Spirit’s current location. The large hill on the horizon is Grissom Hill. The Colombia Hills, located to the left, are not visible in this image.
	NASA's Spirit took this image with its hazard-avoidance camera on sol 86, March 31, 2004, after the rover's rock abrasion tool had brushed for three minutes on each of six locations on the rock named "Mazatzal" to create a flower-shaped mosaic. The goal for this operation was to create a brushed area big enough for the miniature thermal emission spectrometer to capture within one of its pixels, which are 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) in diameter at the distance between the rock and the instrument. Because the rock abrasion tool creates individual brushed areas only about 5 centimeters (2 inches) in diameter, the team designed this six-location series of tool placements in order to brush 92 percent to 95 percent of the spectrometer's pixel size.
	This approximate true-color image taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rock dubbed "Mazatzal" before the rover drilled into it with its rock abrasion tool. On sol 82, Spirit ground into a circular patch of the rock called "New York," then repeated this operation on sol 85 to complete the hole. Several observations were made during this grinding process with the rover's suite of scientific instruments. Preliminary results suggest that fluid may have been present during Mazatzal's formation. Images from the panoramic camera's blue, green and red filters (480, 530 and 600-nanometer filters) were combined to make this picture.
	This image was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera during the rover's grinding of the rock dubbed "Mazatzal" with its rock abrasion tool. The picture shows the rock after the rover drilled 3.8 millimeters (.15 inches) into the target dubbed "New York" on Sol 82. The dark gray coating seen after brushing remains on the right side of the hole, while the left side is the underlying basaltic rock. This approximate true-color image was created using the panoramic camera's red, green and blue filters.
	NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took this image of the rock dubbed "Mazatzal" with its hazard-avoidance camera on sol 82. It was taken after the rover's rock abrasion tool completed a 3 hour and 45 minute grind to produce the hole on Mazatzal's surface. The wheel tracks that can be seen at the base of the rock are the result of rover positioning.
	This cylindrical mosaic taken by the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on sol 82 shows the view south of the large crater dubbed "Bonneville." The rover will travel toward the Columbia Hills, seen here at the upper left. The rock dubbed "Mazatzal" and the hole the rover drilled in to it can be seen at the lower left. The rover's position is referred to as "Site 22, Position 32." This image was geometrically corrected to make the horizon appear flat.
	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).
	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. 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.
	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.
	This mosaic of four images from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's Microscopic Imager shows a target called "New York" on the surface of "Mazatzal." The image was acquired on sol 82 of the rover's mission after the rover ground into the left half of the target. The right side of the target has been brushed but not drilled. Later, on sol 85, the rover ground the right side to complete the hole. Each image making up this mosaic is 3 centimeters (1.2 inches across).
	This black and white panoramic camera image of the rock called "Mazatzal" (top of image) was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on sol 76 (March 2, 2004). It reveals some interesting features on this future rock abrasion tool target, including variants in tone, a sugary surface texture and scalloped areas where parts of the rock seem to have been worn away. Mazatzal's uniqueness is made even more obvious when it is compared to the more typical, basaltic rock in the lower right of the image.
	NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired this image on the 72nd martian day, or sol, of its mission (March 15, 2004) with the left eye of its front hazard-identification camera after digging its wheel into the drift dubbed "Serpent." Creating the commands that would generate this scar was not an easy task for rover controllers. Essentially, they had to choreograph an intricate dance for Spirit, maneuvering it up the side of the dune, shimmying its left front wheel a number of times to create the scuff, and then reversing to attain proper positioning for miniature thermal emission spectrometer observations. Before the task was finished, Spirit moved forward to put the scuff within proper reach of the rover's arm.
	Rover Spirit panoramic camera shows the trench or "scuff" mark in the Gusev Crater location dubbed "Serpent." The trench is approximately 30-35 centimeters (12-14 inches) across and 40-45 centimeters (16-18 inches) long from top to bottom. Work using the rover's instrument deployment device, or” arm," was completed on the undisturbed surface of the drift as well as within the interior of the trench. This image is in approximate true color, based on a scaling of data from the red, green and blue (750 nanometers, 530 nanometers, and 430 nanometers) filters.
	This image, cropped from a larger panoramic image mosaic taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit panoramic camera, shows the rover's destination toward the hills nicknamed the "Columbia Hills." The rover is currently positioned outside the view of this image, on the right. This image was taken on sols 68 and 69 of Spirit's mission (March 12 and 13, 2004) from the location the rover first reached on the western rim of the crater. The image is in approximate true color, based on a scaling of data from the red, green and blue (750 nanometers, 530 nanometers, and 480 nanometers) filters.
	Scientists are interested in these formations in part because they might give insight into the processes that formed some of the material within the crater. Thermal emission measurements by the rover indicate that the dark material just below the far rim of this crater is spectrally similar to rocks that scientists have analyzed along their journey to this location. They want to know why this soil-like material has a spectrum that more closely resembles rocks rather than other soils examined so far. The drifts seen in the foreground of this mosaic might have the answer. Scientists hypothesize that these drifts might consist of wind-deposited particles that are the same as the dark material found against the back wall of the crater.