New Opportunity image shows target ahead. NASA/CalTech/Cornell
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover is rolling its way toward Endeavour crater, eyeing the western rim of the huge feature as seen in new imagery.
Endeavour crater has a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers). Scientists are expecting the robot to gain access to geological deposits older than it has ever surveyed since its landing in January 2004.
Endeavour crater has a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers). Scientists are expecting the robot to gain access to geological deposits older than it has ever surveyed since its landing in January 2004.
The rim of Endeavour crater is nearly two miles away, that’s just over 3 kilometers. In rover-rolling speed – which is very slow – it’ll take some time before Opportunity steers its way up to the huge crater.
Opportunity’s first goal at Endeavour crater is to reach “Spirit Point” – an informal name for the site.
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions in April 2004 and continued operations in bonus extended missions.
Stuck in the sand Spirit stopped communicating in March 2010 as energy available to the rover declined. More than 1,300 commands were radiated to Spirit in an attempt to elicit a response from the rover – only met with silence. The project concluded the Spirit recovery efforts on May 25, 2011.
By Leonard David