Site of Intense Investigation by Spirit

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Caption:

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This image taken by the front hazard avoidance camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit looks toward the northwest and shows some of the targets examined by Spirit after the rover became embedded at this site.

"Ulysses" is the area where Spirit's left wheels broke through a crust and stirred up poorly sorted, weakly cohesive sands. "Sandals" are two small rocks to the northwest of Ulysses. "Cyclops Eye" and "Polyphemus Eye" are two locations in which Spirit's rock abrasion tool was used to bore into the subsurface for detailed textural, compositional, and mineralogical measurements. Ulysses has the highest sulfate content measured by either Spirit or Opportunity. Cyclops Eye also has sulfate minerals beneath the surface whereas Polyphemus Eye does not. Thus Spirit must be sitting over a geologic boundary where materials are different to the west as opposed to the east.

Spirit took this image during the 1,998th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Aug. 16, 2009).

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