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Panorama-rama
January 12th, 2009 | Tags: Mars, MER A - Spirit, MER B - Opportunity, natural color | Published in latest, pictures | 5 Comments
As they begin the sixth year of their 90-day mission to the Red Planet, the rovers Spirit and Opportunity have each recently completed a high-resolution panorama of the local landscape. At the top is one portion of Opportunity’s panorama from the Meridiani Plains. Below that is part of the sweeping view from the other side of the planet in Gusev Crater. We’ve seen portions of each of these before, but this is the first time that both full, high-resolution images have been available.
Sent by: MER-B, MER-A | From: Mars | Released: Jan, 2009 | Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Canvin
Below are reduced versions of the full panoramas. Click on each to find where to download the full (very large) image files.
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January 12th, 2009at 11:39 am(#)
I think the Nobel committee should establish a new prize, this one for Planetary Exploration. And the first recipients should be the Spirit and Opportunity Rover teams. They’re my heroes.
January 13th, 2009at 5:26 pm(#)
I wonder how long it would take Spirit and Opportunity to travel and meet, photograph the other, and give each other a hug for a job well done?
January 13th, 2009at 7:47 pm(#)
I think I recall reading that Opportunity could take as long as 2 years to travel the 15 or so kilometers to the larger crater it’s aiming for. Of course it’s stopping to rubber neck along the way. But still, at that rate, travelling roughly a quarter of the way around Mars to meet Spirit — which has also had to travel another quarter of the way, dragging a bum wheel and running backwards — I suspect it would be a while before we’d see the hug. We might be able to get to Mars, start a colony, and be running tour buses to see their progress before they reached each other.
But what an Odyssey it would be!
January 13th, 2009at 10:35 pm(#)
That would be awesome, John, but sadly Rob’s right.
Unless they can do some Reconnaissance and figure out an Express route.
January 14th, 2009at 9:13 am(#)
Amazing!!! Mars looks very similar to the Earth, thanks for the pictures.