NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity looked across a small crater on the rim of a much larger crater to capture this raw image from its panoramic camera during the rover’s 2,685th martian day, or sol, of work on Mars (August 13, 2011). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has captured new images of intriguing martian terrain from a small crater near the rim of the large Endeavour Crater. The rover arrived at the 13-mile-diameter (21 kilometers) Endeavour on August 9 after a journey of almost 3 years.
Opportunity is now examining the ejected material from the small crater named Odyssey. The rover is approaching a large block of ejecta for investigation with tools on the rover’s robotic arm.
Opportunity and Spirit completed their 3-month primary missions on Mars in April 2004. Both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit ended communications in March 2010.
