What is the name of the highest hill climbed by the Spirit rover?
Answer
Husband Hill
Answer
Husband Hill
The highest hill climbed by the Spirit rover was Husband Hill. Spirit reached its summit in August 2005 during its exploration of the Columbia Hills in Gusev crater, Mars.
Spirit landed on Mars in January 2004 and drove toward the nearby Columbia Hills, a group of peaks named for astronauts lost in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. The rover spent months carefully navigating rocky slopes, sandy patches, and steep terrain before reaching Husband Hill’s summit on August 21, 2005.
A common mix-up is McCool Hill. McCool is the tallest of the Columbia Hills, but Spirit never successfully climbed it. The rover later attempted to reach McCool Hill but became trapped by loose sand and instead spent the Martian winter at Low Ridge Haven. Husband Hill therefore remains the highest hill Spirit actually climbed, even though it is not the tallest hill in the range.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Aug. 2026