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Science Mars Rover Opportunity heads into large crater
Science Mars Rover Opportunity heads into large crater | Mars Rover Opportunity heads into large crater |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Friday, 29 June 2007 | |
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Opportunity's route into Victoria Crater begins at the Duck Bay alcove where it arrived last September, and has been planned to allow the rover to eventually leave the crater. Alcoves are gently sloping parts of a crater's rim, compared with steeper, cliff-like areas. "We don't want this to be a one-way trip," said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments, Cornell University. "We still have some excellent science targets out on the plains that we would like to visit after Victoria. But if Opportunity becomes trapped there, it will be worth the knowledge gained." Apart from any other considerations, there are no other large craters in the area to explore. The closest that is no smaller than Victoria is 25km away. The rover has spent the last nine months exploring the rim, and Duck Bay provides the most favourable entry point with shallow gradients and an exposed rock surface. Whether Opportunity can emerge depends largely on all six of its wheels remaining in working order. Spirit, its twin, lost the use of one wheel more than a year ago, and this has restricted its hill-climbing ability. "These rovers are well past their design lifetimes, and another wheel could fail on either rover at any time," said said John Callas, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "If Opportunity were to lose the use of a wheel inside Victoria Crater, it would make it very difficult, perhaps impossible, to climb back out." Opportunity has been in action for over three years despite an original expectation of a three-month useful life.{moscomment}
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