Spirit's Neighborhood in 'Columbia Hills,' in Stereo

Two Earth years ago, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit touched down in Gusev Crater. The rover marked its first Mars-year (687 Earth days) anniversary in November 2005. On Nov. 2, 2005, shortly before Spirit's Martian anniversary, the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor acquired an image covering approximately 3 kilometers by 3 kilometers (1.9 miles by 1.9 miles) centered on the rover's location in the "Columbia Hills."

The tinted portion of this image gives a stereo, three-dimensional view when observed through 3-D glasses with a red left eye and blue right eye. The tallest peak is "Husband Hill," which was climbed by Spirit during much of 2005. The region south (toward the bottom) of these images shows the area where the rover is currently headed. The large dark patch and other similar dark patches in these images are accumulations of windblown sand and granules. North is up; illumination is from the left. The location is near 14.8 degrees south latitude, 184.6 degrees west longitude.