Columbia Hills (Mars)
The Columbia Hills are a flat, about 5 km long and up to 3 km wide mountain range on Mars. They lie within the large crater Gusev. They were discovered by the Spirit lander that successfully in the crater came down in 2004.
Name
First, the mountains were called East Hill Complex. But just a few days later they renamed it after the previously crashed in the Space Shuttle Columbia in Columbia Hills, where seven individually identifiable surveys were each named after one of it perished astronauts.
Hills
From North to South:
- Anderson Hill - named after Michael P. Anderson
- Brown Hill - named after David M. Brown
- Chawla Hill - named after Kalpana Chawla
- Clark Hill - named after Laurel B. Clark
- Husband Hill - named after Rick D. Husband
- McCool Hill - named after William C. McCool
- Ramon Hill - named after Ilan Ramon
Particularly well-known and researched was the Husband Hill. Spirit climbed it in about 400 Mars days ( sol ). His rise began the Rover on a projection of the hill which was christened West track. He then set off the edge towards the north along and then succeeded to the Tennessee Valley. There, for the first time you could a little look at the country throw behind the mountains. Then he drove along a ridge in the valley to the top. The mountain rises about 100 to 120 meters above the surrounding plain to him. For a long time held the Husband Hill for most of the Columbia Hills. More precise measurements have shown, however, that the south adjacent McCool Hill is a few meters higher.
During the ascent a unique view opened over the Gusev Crater and many breathtaking panoramic images were obtained. As the rover descended again in a southerly direction, he explored a place that was visible on satellite imagery only as a large black spot on the slope of Husband Hills. It was a dune field, which was named in El Dorado. Spirit travels through time to a small valley between the Husband Hill and McCool Hill. On the ground he explored a geological feature - the Home Plate, a stone tablet with about 100 m in diameter.
Spirit wintered 2006/2007 on the slopes of McCool Hills. Its slope allowed the solar panels during the Martian winter a better angle of incidence for low -lying sun.