NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Opportunity Rover As Seen From Orbit

The Mars Exploration Rover (MER-B), Opportunity, landed
on the red planet a year ago. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
cPROTO image
(0.5 cm/pixel) is the only picture obtained thus far that shows the tracks
made by the Opportunity rover.

This is a sub-frame of MOC image R16-02188. It was acquired
on 26 April 2004, during Opportunity’s 91st sol–the first
day of the MER-B Extended Mission. At that time, Opportunity
had recently completed exploration of nearby Fram Crater,
and was enroute toward Endurance Crater, where it would
eventually spend most of the rest of 2004. The rover itself
can be seen in this image– an amazing accomplishment,
considering that the MGS spacecraft was nearly 400 kilometers
(nearly 250 miles) away at the time!

The tracks made by the rover on the sandy surface of
Meridiani Planum are not quite as visible from orbit
as are the tracks made in Gusev Crater by the MER-A
rover, Spirit. The dustier surface at the Spirit site
increases the contrast between the tracks and
the surrounding surfaces. Indeed, some parts of the
track made by Opportunity are not visible in this image.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left, the
100 meter scale bar equals about 109 yards, and
north is toward the top.

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology
built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.
MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Surveyor Operations Project
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena,
California and Denver, Colorado.