The albedo findings are detailed in a research paper, which, along with 10 other papers resulting from Spirit's journey across the Martian surface, are published this week in a special issue of the journal Science (Aug. This is ground-truth information.' (Bonneville was the first crater the rover examined after its landing.) Says Bell, 'The albedo changes that we noticed with Pancam correlate with the changes seen from the Mars orbiters above. 'Spirit landed in a medium brightness region of Gusev crater, and on this mission has crossed into brighter and darker areas travelling to Bonneville crater and beyond,' says Jim Bell, associate professor of astronomy at Cornell University and the lead scientist on the high-resolution, color, stereo panoramic cameras, known as Pancams, carried by Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. The eyes aboard the Mars rover Spirit are delivering ground truth.Īfter more than six months of examining the photographic and spectral data from the rover, Mars mission scientists confirm that the albedo - which is the percentage of sunlight reflected on the red planet's dusty surface - indicates important variations in mineral and dust composition.
