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Wide-Angle View of Gusev Dus
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PIA04156
Sol (our sun)
Hazard-identification Camera
| Title |
Wide-Angle View of Gusev Dust Devil, Sol 559 |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This movie clip shows dust devils moving across the plain inside Mars' Gusev Crater, as seen with a hazard-identification camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. The clip consists of consists of frames taken by that camera during a span of 8 minutes, 26 seconds on the rover's 559th martian day, or sol (July 29, 2005). Contrast has been enhanced for anything in the images that changes from frame to frame, that is, for the dust moved by wind. Spirit began seeing dust devil activity around the beginning of Mars' spring season. Activity increased as spring continued, but fell off again for about two weeks during a dust storm. As the dust storm faded away, dust devil activity came back. In the mid-afternoons as the summer solstice approached, dust devils were a very common occurrence on the floor of Gusev crater. The early-spring dust devils tended to move southwest-to-northeast, across the dust devil streaks in Gusev seen from orbit. Increasingly as the season progresses, the dust devils are seen moving northwest-to-southeast, in the same direction as the streaks. Scientists are watching for the big dust devils that leave those streaks. |
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Slow Progress in Dune (Right
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PIA07985
Sol (our sun)
Hazard-Identification Camera
| Title |
Slow Progress in Dune (Right Rear Wheel) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
The right rear wheel of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity makes slow but steady progress through soft dune material in this movie clip of frames taken by the rover's rear hazard identification camera over a period of several days. The wheel is largely hidden by a cable bundle. The sequence starts on Opportunity's 460th martian day, or sol (May 10, 2005) and ends 11 days later. In eight drives during that period, Opportunity advanced a total of 26 centimeters (10 inches) while spinning its wheels enough to have driven 46 meters (151 feet) if there were no slippage. The motion appears to speed up near the end of the clip, but that is an artifact of individual frames being taken less frequently. |
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Slow Progress in Dune (Right
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PIA07984
Sol (our sun)
Hazard-Identification Camera
| Title |
Slow Progress in Dune (Right Front Wheel) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
The right front wheel of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity makes slow but steady progress through soft dune material in this movie clip of frames taken by the rover's front hazard identification camera over a period of several days. The sequence starts on Opportunity's 460th martian day, or sol (May 10, 2005) and ends 11 days later. In eight drives during that period, Opportunity advanced a total of 26 centimeters (10 inches) while spinning its wheels enough to have driven 46 meters (151 feet) if there were no slippage. The motion appears to speed up near the end of the clip, but that is an artifact of individual frames being taken less frequently. |
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Slow Progress in Dune (Left
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PIA07983
Sol (our sun)
Hazard-Identification Camera
| Title |
Slow Progress in Dune (Left Front Wheel) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
The left front wheel of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity makes slow but steady progress through soft dune material in this movie clip of frames taken by the rover's front hazard identification camera over a period of several days. The sequence starts on Opportunity's 460th martian day, or sol (May 10, 2005) and ends 11 days later. In eight drives during that period, Opportunity advanced a total of 26 centimeters (10 inches) while spinning its wheels enough to have driven 46 meters (151 feet) if there were no slippage. The motion appears to speed up near the end of the clip, but that is an artifact of individual frames being taken less frequently. |
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Slow Progress in Dune (Left
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PIA07986
Sol (our sun)
Hazard-Identification Camera
| Title |
Slow Progress in Dune (Left Rear Wheel) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
The left rear wheel of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity makes slow but steady progress through soft dune material in this movie clip of frames taken by the rover's rear hazard identification camera over a period of several days. The sequence starts on Opportunity's 460th martian day, or sol (May 10, 2005) and ends 11 days later. In eight drives during that period, Opportunity advanced a total of 26 centimeters (10 inches) while spinning its wheels enough to have driven 46 meters (151 feet) if there were no slippage. The motion appears to speed up near the end of the clip, but that is an artifact of individual frames being taken less frequently. |
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Spirit Arm Movements for Mos
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PIA07982
Sol (our sun)
Hazard-Identification Camera
| Title |
Spirit Arm Movements for Mosaic of "Keystone |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
In this movie clip, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit moves its robotic arm, called the instrument deployment device, to take a series of images with the rover's microscopic imager during the rover's 469th martian day, or sol (April 28, 2005). The images making up this clip were taken by Spirit's left front hazard identification camera. The arm's carefully planned motions positioned the microscopic imager to take an array of 24 images of this rock target, dubbed "Keystone," at an outcrop called "Methuselah." The microscopic imager frames were combined into a mosaic view PIA07977 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07977 ] showing the finely laminated texture of the rock. |
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Spirit Ascent Movie, Rover's
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PIA04423
Sol (our sun)
Hazard-identification Camera
| Title |
Spirit Ascent Movie, Rover's-Eye View |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
A movie assembled from frames taken by the rear hazard-identification camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the last few days of the rover's ascent to the crest of "Husband Hill" inside Mars' Gusev Crater. The rover was going in reverse. Rover planners often drive Spirit backwards to keep wheel lubrication well distributed. The images in this clip span a timeframe from Spirit's 573rd martian day, or sol (Aug, 13, 2005) to sol 582 (Aug. 22, 2005), the day after the rover reached the crest. During that period, Spirit drove 136 meters (446 feet), |
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Dust Devils Seen by Spirit
PIA07458
Sol (our sun)
Hazard-identification Camera
| Title |
Dust Devils Seen by Spirit |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Figure 1 Annotated At the Gusev site recently, skies have been very dusty, and on its 421st sol (March 10, 2005) NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit spied two dust devils in action. This pair of images is from the rover's rear hazard-avoidance camera. Views of the Gusev landing region from orbit show many dark streaks across the landscape -- tracks where dust devils have removed surface dust to show relatively darker soil below -- but this is the first time Spirit has photographed an active dust devil. Scientists are considering several causes of these small phenomena. Dust devils often occur when the Sun heats the surface of Mars. Warmed soil and rocks heat the layer of atmosphere closest to the surface, and the warm air rises in a whirling motion, stirring dust up from the surface like a miniature tornado. Another possibility is that a flow structure might develop over craters as wind speeds increase. As winds pick up, turbulence eddies and rotating columns of air form. As these columns grow in diameter they become taller and gain rotational speed. Eventually they become self-sustaining and the wind blows them down range. One sol before this image was taken, power output from Spirit's solar panels went up by about 50 percent when the amount of dust on the panels decreased. Was this a coincidence, or did a helpful dust devil pass over Spirit and lift off some of the dust? By comparing the separate images from the rover's different cameras, team members estimate that the dust devils moved about 500 meters (1,640 feet) in the 155 seconds between the navigation camera and hazard-avoidance camera frames, that equates to about 3 meters per second (7 miles per hour). The dust devils appear to be about 1,100 meters (almost three-quarters of a mile) from the rover. |
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Dust Devils Seen by Spirit
PIA07458
Sol (our sun)
Hazard-identification Camera
| Title |
Dust Devils Seen by Spirit |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Figure 1 Annotated At the Gusev site recently, skies have been very dusty, and on its 421st sol (March 10, 2005) NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit spied two dust devils in action. This pair of images is from the rover's rear hazard-avoidance camera. Views of the Gusev landing region from orbit show many dark streaks across the landscape -- tracks where dust devils have removed surface dust to show relatively darker soil below -- but this is the first time Spirit has photographed an active dust devil. Scientists are considering several causes of these small phenomena. Dust devils often occur when the Sun heats the surface of Mars. Warmed soil and rocks heat the layer of atmosphere closest to the surface, and the warm air rises in a whirling motion, stirring dust up from the surface like a miniature tornado. Another possibility is that a flow structure might develop over craters as wind speeds increase. As winds pick up, turbulence eddies and rotating columns of air form. As these columns grow in diameter they become taller and gain rotational speed. Eventually they become self-sustaining and the wind blows them down range. One sol before this image was taken, power output from Spirit's solar panels went up by about 50 percent when the amount of dust on the panels decreased. Was this a coincidence, or did a helpful dust devil pass over Spirit and lift off some of the dust? By comparing the separate images from the rover's different cameras, team members estimate that the dust devils moved about 500 meters (1,640 feet) in the 155 seconds between the navigation camera and hazard-avoidance camera frames, that equates to about 3 meters per second (7 miles per hour). The dust devils appear to be about 1,100 meters (almost three-quarters of a mile) from the rover. |
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