Gusev Crater
Gusev Crater is a 160 km wide crater explored by the Spirit rover from 2004 to 2010, where it found evidence of ancient hot springs. Explore it in 3D at real scale.
- Location
- 14.6° S, 175.5° E
- Size
- about 160 km across
- Landed
- Spirit, January 2004
- Famous find
- nearly pure silica at Home Plate
Gusev Crater was chosen as Spirit's landing site because a long valley, Ma'adim Vallis, runs into it, and scientists hoped the crater had once held a lake. Spirit landed there in January 2004, three weeks before its twin Opportunity landed on the other side of the planet.
The crater floor turned out to be covered in volcanic rock, so Spirit drove to the Columbia Hills to look for older material. There, around a plateau called Home Plate, it found soil that was almost pure silica, a sign of hot springs or steam vents in the distant past.
What to look for
- The Columbia Hills. Low hills a few kilometres from the landing site, named after the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia.
- Home Plate. A layered volcanic plateau where Spirit made its most important discovery.
- Troy. The sandy spot where Spirit got stuck in 2009 and where it spent its final months.
Driving Gusev in Trawers
Spirit drove about 7.7 km in six years. In Trawers you can cover that in a single session, then keep going towards Ma'adim Vallis or the crater rim and see how big Gusev really is.