A traveling robotic geologist from NASA has landed on Mars and returned stunning images of the area around its landing site in Gusev Crater.
Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully sent a radio signal after the spacecraft had bounced and rolled for several minutes following its initial impact at 11:35 p.m. EST (8:35 p.m. Pacific Standard Time) on January 3.
Check out these first images from Spirit on Mars.
This mosaic image taken by the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a 360 degree panoramic view of the rover on the surface of Mars.
This image taken by the hazard avoidance camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's front wheels in stowed configuration.
This image taken by the hazard avoidance camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's rear lander petal and, in the background, the Martian horizon. Spirit took the picture right after successfully landing on the surface of Mars.
This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.
This image, taken by the Navigation Camera onboard Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, shows the surface of Mars near the rover. The yellow boxes represent the outlines of the image frames that will be acquired when European Space Agency's Mars Express rover passes overhead. Labeled dots represents surface features that scientists plan to investigate.
