NASA rover Opportunity moving to new digs on Mars

William Atkins
Tuesday, 23 September 2008 08:01

Science - Space

However, Opportunity will be assisted in its journey by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera which is aboard the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The high-resolution camera, which arrived in orbit about Mars in 2006, will be able to keep Opportunity out of trouble—helping it to avoid potential hazards as it observes objects smaller than the rover itself.

In addition, Opportunity has been uplinked with new software that improves its ability to choose independently from directions given by mission controllers back on Earth the best routes to take to avoid hazards such as sand dunes.

Cornell University astronomer Steve Squyres, the principal investigator for the science instruments aboard Opportunity and its sister rover Spirit, states, “We may not get there, but it is scientifically the right direction to go anyway. This crater [Endeavour] is staggeringly large compared to anything we've seen before." [NASA]

Endeavour Crater has a diameter of approximately 13.7 miles (22 kilometers). Its size, and especially its depth, will give scientists back on Earth a much deeper look at the rock layers beneath the Martian surface.

Squvres adds, "I would love to see that view from the rim. But even if we never get there, as we move southward we expect to be getting to younger and younger layers of rock on the surface. Also, there are large craters to the south that we think are sources of cobbles that we want to examine out on the plain. Some of the cobbles are samples of layers deeper than Opportunity will ever see, and we expect to find more cobbles as we head toward the south."

Opportunity exited Victoria Crater on August 29, 2008. Since then it has been investigating dark cobble stones on the Meridiani plains, while working its way to Endeavour Crater.

The NASA Mars Exploration Rover website, for both Opportunity and Spirit, is found at: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers.