LOS ANGELES - Spirit, the robot on wheels that reached the top of a Martian hill this summer after an epic climb, is heading back down toward its next target for exploration.

After two months at the summit of Husband Hill, the six-wheeled rover is descending to a basin where the scientific instruments it carries will examine an outcrop dubbed "home plate" because from orbit it looks like home on a baseball field.

Last month, scientists released the first full-color panoramic photo of the landscape taken by Spirit from the 270-foot-high summit. It shows the rover’s distinct tracks in the dust, the flat plains of the surrounding Gusev Crater region and distant plateaus on the crater rim.