Untitled
A loose bit of packaging
aboard the Mars rover Spirit has given scientists a year-long look at how dust
collected, was kicked up, and then resettled on the robot's deck.
A coiled cable tie similar
to the wire twisty ties used to secure plastic bags around loaves of bread has
left streaks in the fine dust layer of Spirit's upper surface. Sitting in an ad
hoc containment bowl bordered by Spirit's solar array and the mast of its
panoramic camera, the centimeters-long cable tie is one of about 1,000 such ties
used to secure objects aboard the rover, as well as its lander, backshell and
parachute can.
In this image taken by
Spirit on Jan. 3, 2005 - one year after the rover landed at Mars' Gusev Crater -
the cable tie appears as a white, squiggly object near the image's center. As it
slid around Spirit's surface, the cable tie left streaks upon streaks in the
Martian dust. Older streaks have been covered over by new dust, which has then
been cut into again by the cable tie's motion.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit:
NASA/JPL
Return each weekday for a new SPACE.com Image of the Day.
| 
