PIA07156: Potato-size Rock in Spirit's Wheel Well


Potato-size Rock in Spirit’s Wheel Well

Caption:

In recent days, controllers directed NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit to back up and turn to try to dislodge a potato-size rock from Spirit's right rear wheel. The rock did not present a threat -- it was sort of like having a pebble stuck in your shoe -- but the rover team was taking no chances that the rock might work its way deeper inside the rover's wheel well. The rock can be seen in the lower left side of this image, which Spirit took with its right rear hazard avoidance camera on martian day, or sol, 345 (Dec. 21, 2004). By the following day, the rock had rolled out onto the martian sand.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
Instrument Host Spirit (MER-A)
Host Type Rover
Instrument Hazard Camera (Hazcam)
Detector
Extra Keywords Grayscale
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2004-12-28
Date in Caption 2004-12-21
Image Credit NASA/JPL
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07156
Identifier PIA07156