NASA’s Opportunity takes to the open road on Mars

by William Atkins

Friday, 29 August 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) “Opportunity” is rolling out of Victoria Crater after a successful year-long investigation of the Martian hole. It will now target the cobbles found on the Martian plain Meridiani Planum. According to the NASA media release “NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity climbing out of Victoria Crater,“ Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientist Bruce Banerdt (MER project scientist) stated, “We've done everything we entered Victoria Crater to do and more.” Opportunity began its climb out of the crater on Tuesday, August 26, 2008. At the time of its ascent out of Victoria Crater the little robot was having power irregularities. These were of a great concern for the MER team because such “spikes” were also found on its sister robot Spirit before one of its wheels failed. It is being reported that to emerge from the crater, Opportunity will need all six of its wheels for the climb. Specifically, Opportunity will be investigating the diversity of rocks at Meridiani Planum, a plain about two degrees south of the Martian equator. It is located in the westernmost portion of Terra Meridiani. The plain is important, in one respect, to the MER scientists because hematite is found there. Hematite is a gray crystalline mineral, a Iron(III) oxide (Fe2O3). It is found only rarely on Mars. Scientists think that hematite was formed millions of years ago in an aqueous environment, either of hot springs or pools of water. Page two continues the Martian mission << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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