Jaw-Dropping 3-D Rock Garden on Mars

By Nancy Atkinson - August 30, 2011 at 3:03 PM UTC | Planetary Science
rock-garden-3D.jpg

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Want to experience a "you-are-there" moment with the Opportunity rover on Mars? Grab a set of 3-D glasses (red/blue) and take a gander at one of the latest views from Oppy as she starts her explorations around the rim of Endeavour Crater. This stunning 3-D version of an image taken by the rover was created by our pal Stu Atkinson. This "rock garden," as the folk from

Unmanned Spaceflight

are calling it, provides a view unlike anything either Mars rover has investigated yet on Mars. The region is called "Spirit Point" in honor of the now-silent rover that sits on the other side of Mars. This is actually an ejecta field of rocks thrown about after the impact that created this huge crater where the rover is now traversing, and is an exciting region for the MER scientists to explore. As Stu so poetically says in his

Road to Endeavour

blog, it's also exciting because Opportunity "was sent to Mars to look at rocks, to drive between rocks, to trundle over powdery, cinnamon-hued dust that used to be rocks to get to younger, more solid rocks."

Oppy's found a veritable treasure trove of interesting rocks to explore, and Stu has also put together a collection of some of the most interesting in the rover's current field of view:

[caption id="attachment_88514" align="aligncenter" width="544" caption="The Rocks of Spirit Point. Images: NASA/JPL/Caltech; collection by Stu Atkinson"]

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The latest

mission update for Opportunity

on the Mars Rover website says the rover has now reached the rock named Tinsdale 2, started a multi-sol, multi-target in-situ (contact) investigation with a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of a set of surface targets collectively named "Timmins," followed by a placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration. So, she is putting all her resources to work to find out more about this interesting rock.

Here's a non-3-D, raw image of the region from Opportunity:

[caption id="attachment_88515" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Opportunity's view of Endeavour Crater on sol 2696, from the navigation camera. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech."]

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Thanks to Stu for sharing his great images, and you can read more about this interesting spot on Mars in Stu's article, "

In Praise of Rock

"

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