NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its navigation camera to take
the images that have been combined into this stereo, 180-degree view of
the rover's surroundings during the 1,856th Martian day, or sol, of
Spirit's surface mission (March 23, 2009). The center of the view is
toward the west-southwest.
The rover had driven 25.82 meters (84.7 feet) west-northwestward earlier
on Sol 1856. This is the longest drive on Mars so far by a rover using
only five wheels. Spirit lost the use of its right-front wheel in March
2006. Before Sol 1856, the farthest Spirit had covered in a single sol's
five-wheel drive was 24.83 meters (81.5 feet), on Sol 1363 (Nov. 3, 2007).
The Sol 1856 drive made progress on a route planned for taking Spirit
around the western side of the low plateau called "Home Plate." A portion
of the northwestern edge of Home Plate is prominent in the left quarter of
this image, toward the south.
This view is presented as a cylindrical projection with
geometric seam correction.