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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Spirit self-portrait of its underbelly

Spirit self-portrait of its underbelly
Spirit self-portrait of its underbelly Spirit took this panorama of images on its Sol 1925 (2 June 2009) to help its ground team assess its current state and plan its extraction from the soft soil known as Ulysses in the region called Troy. The rover took the images by reaching underneath it and snapping pictures with it microscopic imager mounted on the end of its robotic arm. The camera had no focus mechanism and had a very flat depth of field, so was in focus only on targets located about 6 centimeters in front of its optics. As a result, the images in this mosaic are out of focus. It was still very useful for the engineers and scientists. The mosaic, which is rotated to show the true orientation of the rover relative to the local terrain, shows the underside of the rover, the depth to which the wheels are embedded, and a pointy rock on which Spirit's belly may be resting. NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / USGS