Spirit traverse in Gusev crater

Spirit · 2004 CE – 2010 CE · Mars

Spirit traverse in Gusev crater — Spirit · 2004 CE – 2010 CE · Mars — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Look for rocks shaped by water on the floor of a crater that may once have been a lake.

Historical context

Spirit was sent to Gusev, a crater that a long valley empties into, in the hope that it had once held a lake. It found volcanic basalt instead, drove to a range of hills about three kilometres away, climbed the highest of them and, dragging a broken wheel, uncovered nearly pure silica left by a hot spring or a steam vent. It survived a software fault in its first weeks, repaired from Earth, and dust devils that swept its solar panels lengthened its working life.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Columbia Memorial Station

    4 January 2004

    Spirit struck the floor of Gusev crater at 04:35 Universal Time on 4 January 2004, as received on Earth, 8:35 in the evening of 3 January in Pasadena; after several minutes of bouncing and rolling it radioed that it had landed safely. Two days later NASA named the site Columbia Memorial Station, for the seven astronauts lost with the shuttle Columbia the previous February.

  2. The rim of Bonneville

    11 March 2004

    On 11 March 2004, after 335 metres of driving, Spirit reached the rim of Bonneville and looked into a crater whose far rim lay about two hundred metres away, the length of two football fields by JPL’s comparison. The rock it found here, as all across the plain, was basalt.

  3. Across the plain

    2004 CE

    With its three-month prime mission complete in April 2004 and the rover still healthy, the team sent Spirit east across the plain towards a range of hills about three kilometres away, which from the landing site had looked like mere bumps on the horizon.

  4. West Spur

    June 2004

    Spirit began climbing into the Columbia Hills in June 2004, five months after landing, and at once found rocks unlike those of the plain: some seemed to be rotting, with soft interiors and harder rinds. Water had worked on them.

  5. A summit on Mars

    21 August 2005

    On sol 581, 21 August 2005, Spirit reached the crest of Husband Hill, eighty-two metres above the edge of the surrounding plains and a hundred and six metres above its landing site, and looked at a horizon all the way round.

  6. White silica

    29 March 2007

    On sol 1150, 29 March 2007, Spirit was driving backwards beside Home Plate, a low volcanic plateau, dragging the right front wheel that had stopped turning a year before. The wheel ploughed up a bright patch of soil that proved to be almost pure silica, about nine-tenths of it by the rover’s measurement.

  7. Troy

    23 April 2009

    On sol 1886, 23 April 2009, driving south along the western side of Home Plate, Spirit broke through a crust into soft sulphate sand at a spot the team named Troy. A few attempts to drive out only sank it deeper.

Outcome

7.73 km driven in more than six years, a hill climbed and nearly pure silica found beside Home Plate.

Spirit

Mars Exploration Rover that drove 7.73 km across Gusev crater between 2004 and 2010 and found nearly pure silica left by ancient hot water or steam.

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Sources

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