This true color photo taken by
the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit
shows "Adirondack," the rover's first target rock, in
the lower right section of the image. Spirit traversed the sandy
martian terrain at Gusev Crater to arrive in front of the football-sized
rock on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2004, just three days after it successfully
rolled off the lander. The rock was selected as Spirit's first
target because its dust-free, flat surface is ideally suited for
grinding by the rover's instruments. Clean surfaces also are better
for examining a rock's top coating. Scientists named the angular
rock after the Adirondack mountain range in New York. The word
Adirondack is Native American and is interpreted by some to mean
"They of the great rocks."
