The Mars Rover (MRO) took a spectacular photo of the vehicle Opportunity standing on the floor of a huge crater.
The Opportunity SUV is on the edge of a crater
The Mars Rover (MRO) took a spectacular photo of the vehicle Opportunity standing on the floor of a huge crater. The MRO spacecraft arrived at Mars in March of this year and only recently entered an orbit that would give it a good observation to begin scientific activity. The image of Victoria Crater will help NASA researchers determine where to send Opportunity to make ground observations, so that it can enter the crater and exit it at the end of the mission.
The image was taken from an altitude of 275 km with the robot visible as a tiny dot there. "This is a great example of how our missions to Mars from orbit and on the ground are designed to reinforce each other and expand our ability to explore and discover," said Doug McQuiston, manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. in Washington.
Opportunity has been making its way to Victoria Crater for the past 21 months in Israel - almost half of the time the robot has been on Mars. The crater has high walls with layers of exposed rock that may reveal new information about the planet's geological past.
Opportunite has already discovered strong evidence that rocks in the area of Mars it is investigating - the Meridian Plain - were in contact with liquid water many millions of years ago. The investigation of the rocks in Victoria is expected to fill the gaps in existing knowledge.
The project's principal investigator, Steve Squires, said Opportunity will spend a short time doing a comprehensive survey of the crater basin before deciding whether to go inside the crater. "We're trying to find a safe place to get in and out. I'm not interested in a suicide drive into the crater," said Squires, who works at Cornell University. "Inside this huge hole in the ground we will have the ability to see what lies beneath the surface of Mars, and observe a rock pile thicker than we can see anywhere else, and therefore we will be able to see a larger piece of the geological past of Mars." Said Squires who added: "We have a suite of instruments on the end of the robot's arm and I'm hoping to get that arm to one of the layered rocks.
Opportunity arrived on Mars in January 2004. Its twin, Spirit, continues to explore Gusev Crater on the other side of the planet.
