Scientists created this overlay map by laying navigation and panoramic camera images taken from the surface of Mars on top of one of Spirit's descent images taken as the spacecraft descended to the martian surface. The map was created to help track the path that Spirit has traveled through sol 44 and to put into perspective the distance left to travel before reaching the edge of the large crater nicknamed "Bonneville".
The area boxed in yellow contains the ground images that have been matched to and layered on top of the descent image. The yellow line shows the path that Spirit has traveled and the red dashed line shows the intended path for future sols. The blue circles highlight hollowed areas on the surface, such as Sleepy Hollow, near the lander, and Laguna Hollow, the sol 45 drive destination. Scientists use these hollowed areas - which can be seen in both the ground images and the descent image - to correctly match up the overlay.

Field geologists on Earth create maps like this to assist them in tracking their observations.

This picture, obtained by the microscopic imager on NASA's Opportunity rover during sol 24, February 17 PST, shows soil clods exposed in the upper wall of the trench dug by Opportunity's right front wheel on sol 23. The clods were not exposed until the trench was made. The presence of soil clods implies weak bonding between individual soil grains. The chemical agent or mineral that causes the dirt to bind together into a clod, which scientists call the "bonding agent," is currently unknown. Moessbauer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometer measurements of this spot, planned for sol 25, might help explain the bonding, which would ultimately help the rover team understand how geological processes vary across the red planet. In any case, the bonds between soil grains here cannot be very strong because the wheel dug down through this layer with little trouble.

This front hazard-avoidance image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on sol 45 shows Spirit in its new location after a drive totaling about 20 meters (65.6 feet). The circular depression that Spirit is in, dubbed "Laguna Hollow," was most likely formed by a small impact.
Scientists were interested in reaching Laguna Hollow because of the location's abundance of very fine, dust-like soil. The fine material could be atmospheric dust that has settled into the depression, or a salt-based material that causes crusts in the soils and coating on rocks. Either way, scientists hope to be able to characterize the material and broaden their understanding of this foreign world.

To help scientists get a better look at the variations in the fine-grained dust at different depths, controllers commanded Spirit to "jiggle" its wheels in the soil before backing away to a distance that allows the area to be reached with the robotic arm. Spirit will likely spend part of sol 46 analyzing this area with the instruments on its robotic arm.

This image taken by the microscopic imager instrument located on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's instrument deployment device, or "arm," shows the crater floor at Meridiani Planum, Mars, before the rover dug a trench on sol 23 (February 16, 2004). Grains of soil on the floor appear sand-sized with millimeter-sized pebbles on top. The area in this image measures approximately 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across.

This image taken by the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the crater floor at Meridiani Planum, Mars, after the rover dug a trench on sol 23 (February 16, 2004). Scientists used the microscopic imager, an instrument located on the rover's instrument deployment device, or "arm," to take a picture of the small patch of soil in the center of the trench wall. Here, that microscopic image has been overlaid to show where that patch of soil, which measures approximately 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across, is located.

This image, taken by the microscopic imager, an instrument located on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity 's instrument deployment device, or "arm," reveals shiny, spherical objects embedded within the trench wall at Meridiani Planum, Mars. Scientists are highly intrigued by these objects and may further investigate them. The area in this image measures approximately 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across.

This image was taken by the microscopic imager, an instrument located on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity 's instrument deployment device, or "arm." The image shows the imprint of the donut-shaped plate on the rover's Moessbauer spectrometer instrument, also located on the "arm." The Moessbauer spectrometer was deployed within the trench to investigate the fine-grained soil for iron-bearing minerals. The area in this image measures approximately 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across.

This image mosaic taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera highlights the rover's next target - a collection of rocks within the larger outcrop nicknamed "El Capitan." "El Capitan" is located at the top of the outcrop, a bit right of center. Opportunity will travel after it finishes exploring the trench dug by with one of its wheels.

This map shows the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's travels since arriving on the red planet Jan. 3, 2004 PST. Spirit is on its way to a large crater nicknamed "Bonneville." On the 45th day, or sol, of its mission (Feb.18, 2004), it stopped off at the shallow depression dubbed "Laguna Hollow" to investigate the fine-grained soil contained there. The rover is not far from Bonneville's ejecta, the blanket of material expelled from the crater when it was hit by whatever celestial object created it. So far, Spirit has traveled about 120 meters from its lander. Data within the yellow box represent a digital map made of images taken by rover's panoramic and navigation cameras. Data outside this box are a composite of images from the rover's descent image motion estimation system camera and the orbiter Mars Global Surveyor.

This image shows the patch of soil at the bottom of the shallow depression dubbed "Laguna Hollow" where the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit will soon begin trenching. Scientists are intrigued by the clustering of small pebbles and the crack-like fine lines, which indicate a coherent surface that expands and contracts. A number of processes can cause materials to expand and contract, including cycles of heating and cooling; freezing and thawing; and rising and falling of salty liquids within a substance. This false-color image was created using the blue, green and infrared filters of the rover's panoramic camera. Scientists chose this particular combination of filters to enhance the heterogeneity of the martian soil.

This projected mosaic image, taken by the microscopic imager, an instrument located on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity 's instrument deployment device, or "arm," shows the partial clotting or cement-like properties of the sand-sized grains within the trench wall. The area in this image measures approximately 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) wide and 5 centimeters (2 inches) tall.(This image also appears as an inset on a separate image from the rover's navigation camera, showing the location of this particular spot within the trench wall.)

This animation shows the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's arm exploring the trench the rover dug with one of its wheels. The arm, or instrument deployment device, holds a suite of scientific instruments designed to examine rocks and soil for signs of past water on Mars. The movie was made from images taken by the rover's hazard-avoidance camera.

20 February 2004
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a fairly young meteor impact crater on Mars that is about the same size (~ 1 kilometer; 0.62 miles) as the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, U.S.A. Like the Arizona crater, boulders of ejected bedrock can be seen on the crater's ejecta blanket and in the crater itself. This crater is located in the Aethiopis region of Mars near 4.7°N, 224.1°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left.