Sol 3974, March 29, 2015. While the rover’s instrument arm is busy with the Athens outcrop, the Pancam looks generally eastward over Spirit of St. Louis Crater (left side). In the distance stands the hazy profile of Endeavour Crater’s far rim.
Spirit of St. Louis Crater, appearing almost eradicated, poses geological puzzles. How did it form, and how big was it originally? How much ground has been eroded to reduce it to this level? What’s the nature of the darker material filling it? Where did the disintegrating rubble pile (dubbed Lindbergh) come from? The oval-shaped crater also has a long axis that aligns with Marathon Valley — are they related somehow? (Click the image to open larger version of the four-frame Pancam composite in a new browser tab.)
Opportunity raw images, its latest mission status, a location map. and atmospheric opacity, known as tau.