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Spirit Clocks Up Three Kilometers

This cylindrical-projection mosaic was created from navigation camera images acquired by NASA�s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit during Spirit's sol 153, on June 8, 2004. Spirit is pointing toward the base of the "Columbia Hills."
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  • Pasadena (JPL) Jun 11, 2004
    During sols 148 through 151, Spirit advanced significantly closer to the "Columbia Hills" and now sits only 220 meters (722 feet) from its first target at the base, a location informally named "Spur B."

    Sol 148 was a driving sol, with Spirit completing a 64.7-meter (212. 3 feet) engineer-directed drive. This put the rover in position for some sol 149 work with the robotic arm, and provided a great view of the Columbia Hills.

    On Sol 149, Spirit took a break from driving and surveyed the Columbia Hills with the panoramic camera and mini thermal emissions spectrometer. After that, the rover attained an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer observation of the filter magnet and capture magnet.

    Spirit takes a look at its magnets every now and then to assess what magnetically susceptible materials have accumulated. The last magnet check was on sol 92.

    Spirit used its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and M�ssbauer spectrometer to observe a rock called "Joshua" on sol 150.

    Unfortunately, the rest of the sol's planned work with the instrument deployment device did not take place because of a command anomaly, which made Spirit think that a collision between the rock abrasion tool and the forearm might occur. Therefore, the tool change and all subsequent arm motions were prevented for the rest of the sol.

    Spirit was back to business on sol 151, and finished observing Joshua and the science magnets with the tools on the instrument deployment device. After that, the rover was off, and successfully completed a 73-meter (240 feet) drive toward the Columbia Hills.

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    The Geology Of Mars Mid-'04
    Sacramento (SPX) Jun 08, 2004
    But while the ability of Spirit to locate water-deposited and -modified material on Mars' surface is still in doubt, its twin Opportunity has rather stolen its thunder by finding solid proof of such material almost as soon as it landed on the strange, flat, hematite-covered Meridiani Plain.



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