Opportunity at 'Cook Islands'

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech , Posted on: Monday, 29 June 2009, 05:37 CDT Download full size image

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the images combined into this full-circle view of the rover's surroundings during the 1,825th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's surface mission (March 12, 2009). North is at the center, and south is at both ends.

The rover had driven half a meter (1.5 feet) earlier on Sol 1825 to fine-tune its location for placing its robotic arm onto an exposed patch of outcrop including a target area informally called "Cook Islands." On the preceding sol, Opportunity turned around to drive frontwards and then drove 4.5 meters (15 feet) toward this outcrop. The tracks from the SOl 1824 drive are visible in the center foreground of this view. For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 1 meter (about 40 inches). Opportunity had previously been driving backward as a strategy to redistribute lubrication in a wheel drawing more electrical current than usual.

The outcrop exposure that includes "Cook Islands" is in the lower right and left corners of the image. In the upper right, southeast from the rover's position, is a very small crater called "Resolution."

The terrain in this portion of Mars' Meridiani Planum region includes dark-toned sand ripples and lighter-toned bedrock.

This view is presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction.

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