Spirit's Winter Haven: the surroundings (2)

Caption NASA originale:"The planned subsurface soil experiments will be a first for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. To conduct the study, Spirit will use the brush on the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to carefully sweep away soil, much the way an archaeologist uses a brush to uncover artifacts. At each level, Spirit will measure the mineral and chemical properties and assess the physical nature (such as grain size, texture, hardness) of the material, using the Athena Science Instruments on the Robotic Arm (RA). Of particular interest are vertical variations in soil characteristics that may indicate water-related deposition of sulfates and other minerals".