Opportunity's View on Sol 354
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured this 360-degree panorama with its navigation camera on the rover's 354th martian day, or sol (Jan. 21, 2005). The view is presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction. Just to the right of center is the divot where Opportunity's heat shield hit the ground after protecting the spacecraft during descent through Mars' atmosphere. The heat shield was jettisoned about 90 seconds before Opportunity landed about 800 meters (half a mile) away. To the left of the divot is the flank portion of the heat shield debris and in the left foreground is the main wreckage of the heat shield. On the far right is a basketball-size rock dubbed "Heat Shield Rock," which Opportunity's inspection identified as an iron-nickel meteorite. The rim of "Endurance Crater" is visible on the horizon on both the left and right ends of this full-circle view.