HiRISE Captures Amazing Close-Up of Spirit Rover

By Nancy Atkinson - April 8, 2010 at 7:38 AM UTC | Planetary Science
spirit.jpg

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The HiRISE team released some new images on Wednesday -- one of which was

another incredible avalanche image

. But then there was another shot of Gusev Crater, the home of the Spirit rover. It was a wide shot of the entire region (you can see it below), and visible are the Columbia Hills, and if you look real close you can see the "Home Plate" region where Spirit sits. Our friend

Stu Atkinson

took a

real

close look and found Spirit sitting all alone --but very visible in this wonderfully amazing zoom-in closeup! (Click the image for access to a larger version). Stu also colorized it to show almost intricate detail of Spirit's solar panels. The image was taken on Feb. 15, 2010, and she looks great! She's in her current stationary position, and even though this image is from before she went into hibernation, it's great to know she's still sitting there, waiting for warmer days. "Hang in there rover, hang in there..." Stu said on

Twitter

, which echoes all our sentiments. Awww, Spirit....

Thanks to Stu and

HiRISE

for keeping our hopes alive!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="The Spirit rover landing region. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona"]

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Stu has also written a few of wonderful items about Spirit: A poem called

Spirit Shivering,

a great story about

someone who maybe could travel to Mars and free Spirit,

and a great blog post titled,

"Spirit, Time to Rest."

Stu is a very talented writer and image editor, so check out his incredible handiwork!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com