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The Spirit Mars rover is
dune driving within Gusev Crater this week. The robot wheeled itself into a
drift named "Serpent" at the south rim of Bonneville impact crater, a more modest
depression within the expansive Gusev.
One of Spirit's navigation
cameras caught the result of the robot driving into the sandy feature. Scientists
wanted to disturb and then analyze the material at Serpent.
The robot's Panoramic Camera
and Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer will be used to help characterize the
makeup of the drift. Spirit has spent over 70 martian days surveying and trekking
across the Mars landscape, landing on the red planet in early January.
Credit: NASA/JPL
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