Opportunity at Victoria crater

by ARTiFactor on Oct. 07th, 2006
in Earth and Space Science and The Universe

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Victoria crater, Mars: credit: NASA/JPL/UA

Springtime on Mars

Our two little Mars rover robots survived another winter on Mars. Spirit, who has a bad wheel, sat on a hillside facing the sun. Opportunity, who spent several weeks spinning its wheels in a sand dune, has now reached a huge crater named Victoria. Progress will be slow during October, though, because the Sun's position near our radio path causes interference.

Rovers goal is to find evidence of water

Within two months after landing on Mars in early 2004, Opportunity found geological evidence for a long-ago environment that was wet. Deeper sediments exposed in craters allow a look into Mar's past. The Eagle Crater, in which Opportunity landed in 2004, gave geologists about 0.5 metres of layered rock to study. Endurance Crater, where Opportunity spent about six months, provided 7 metres of layers. Victoria Crater appears to be at least 60 metres deep.

"This is a geologist's dream come true," says rover principal scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, US. "Those layers of rock, if we can get to them, will tell us new stories about the environmental conditions long ago. New Scientist

Jim Bell of Cornell, lead scientist for the rovers' panoramic cameras says NASA plans to drive Opportunity from crater ridge to ridge, studying nearby cliffs across the intervening alcoves and looking for safe ways to drive the rover down.

"It's like going to the Grand Canyon and seeing what you can from several different overlooks before you walk down," Bell said.

Want see more

Opportunity, at the edge of Victoria crater

3D rotating view of Victoria crater

NASA press release

Your Comments, Thoughts, Questions, Ideas

Anonymous says:

very interesting story

posted on Sat, 10/21/2006 - 11:03am

ARTiFactor says:

Spirit celebrates 1000 days on Mars

What is known as the Solar conjunction of Mars began Oct. 16 and will last until Nov. 10. During that time the sun is between Earth and Mars blocking out transmissions from earth to the Mars rovers. On Oct. 26, Spirit celebrated it 1000th Martian day (that is 1026 Earth days). From April through October 2006, Spirit has stayed on a small hill known as "Low Ridge." To celebrate, NASA released a panorama photo of Spirit's view.

Oct. 26, 2006, marks Spirit's 1,000th sol of what was planned as a 90-sol mission. (A sol is a Martian day, which lasts 24 hours, 39 minutes, 35 seconds). The rover has lived through the most challenging part of its second Martian winter. Its solar power levels are rising again. Spring in the southern hemisphere of Mars will begin in early 2007. Before that, the rover team hopes to start driving Spirit again toward scientifically interesting places in the "Inner Basin" and "Columbia Hills" inside Gusev crater. The McMurdo panorama is providing team members with key pieces of scientific and topographic information for choosing where to continue Spirit's exploration adventure.NASA photojournal

posted on Fri, 10/27/2006 - 9:37pm

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