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TOPIC: The Opportunity rover
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Spirit Point
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Eagle to Endeavour - Opportunity's Path, Sol 2609

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a point about 3.5 kilometres away from reaching the rim of Endeavour crater.
Endeavour crater has been the rover team's destination for Opportunity since the rover finished exploring Victoria crater in August 2008. Endeavour, with a diameter of about 22 kilometres, offers access to older geological deposits than any Opportunity has seen before.
In honour of Opportunity's rover twin, the team has chosen "Spirit Point" as the informal name for the site on Endeavour's rim targeted for Opportunity's arrival at Endeavour. Spirit, which worked halfway around Mars from Opportunity for more than six years, ended communication in March 2010.


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Opportunity Heads Toward 'Spirit Point'

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

When NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity reaches the rim of a large crater it is approaching, its arrival will come with an inspiring reminder.
This crater, Endeavour, became the rover's long-term destination nearly three years ago. Opportunity has driven about 18 kilometres since climbing out of Victoria crater in August 2008, with Endeavour crater beckoning to the southeast. The rover has about 3 kilometres to go before reaching the rim of Endeavour.
Rover team members last week selected "Spirit Point" as the informal name for the site on the rim where Opportunity will arrive at Endeavour crater. The choice commemorates Opportunity's rover twin, Spirit, which has ended communication and finished its mission.
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Blobrana


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Skylab crater
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Opportunity Passes Small Crater and Big Milestone

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The view spans 216 degrees of the compass, from northwest on the right to south on the right. It is presented as a cylindrical projection.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A drive of 146.8 metres on June 1, 2011, took NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity past 30 kilometres in total odometry during 88 months of driving on Mars. That's 50 times the distance originally planned for the mission and more than 12 times the distance racehorses will run next week at the Belmont Stakes.
Opportunity has passed many craters on its crater-hopping tour. One of the youngest of them is "Skylab" crater, which the rover passed last month. Rocks scattered by the impact of a meteorite surround the resulting crater in a view recorded by Opportunity on May 12.
This crater, informally named after America's first space station, is only about 9 metres in diameter. Opportunity passed it as the rover made progress toward its long-term destination, Endeavour crater, which is about 22 kilometres in diameter.

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Mars Rover Driving Leaves Distinctive Tracks

When NASA's Opportunity Mars rover uses an onboard navigation capability during backward drives, it leaves a distinctive pattern in the wheel tracks visible on the Martian ground.

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Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech

The rover team routinely commands Opportunity to drive backward as a precaution for extending the life of the rover's right-front wheel, which has been drawing more electrical current than the other five wheels. Rover drivers can command the rover to check for potential hazards in the drive direction, whether the rover is driving backward or forward. In that autonomous navigation mode, the rover pauses frequently, views the ground with the navigation camera on its mast, analyses the stereo images, and makes a decision about proceeding.

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Mars Rover's 'Gagarin' Moment Applauded Exploration

A flat, light-toned rock on Mars visited by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover in 2005 informally bears the name of the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, who rode into orbit in the Soviet Union's Vostok-1 spacecraft on April 12, 1961.
The team using Opportunity to explore the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since 2004 chose "Gagarin" for what they would call the rock that the rover examined beside "Vostok" crater. A target for close-up examination on Gagarin is called "Yuri."
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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Opportunity Back on Path to 'Endeavour' - sols 2540-2545, March 17-22, 2011:

Opportunity completed the final position for the last wide-baseline stereo imaging of "Santa Maria" crater.
On Sol 2542 (March 19, 2011), the rover moved toward the final "eye" of the wide-baseline imaging location with a drive of 8.3 metres. Over the next several sols, the rover collected extensive panoramic camera (Pancam) images of the crater and its interior for the wide-baseline imaging campaign.
With its work now complete at Santa Maria, Opportunity has resumed the trek to Endeavour crater, still some 6.5 kilometres  away. For the next sol's plan, a drive of approximately 100 metres due east was sequenced, leaving Santa Maria in the rover's rear view mirror.
As of Sol 2545 (March 22, 2011), solar array energy production was 453 watt-hours with an elevated atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.986 and a solar array dust factor of 0.588.
Total odometry is 26,709.42 metres (26.71 kilometres)



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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Study of 'Ruiz Garcia' Rock Completed - sols 2527-2532, March 04-09, 2011:

Opportunity completed the in-situ (contact) investigation on the surface target Ruiz Garcia at Santa Maria crater.
On Sol 2520 (Feb. 25, 2011), the rover used the robotic arm (Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD) to collect a microscopic imager (MI) image mosaic of Ruiz Garcia. Then, it placed the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) down on the target for multi-sol integration.
On Sol 2531 (March 8, 2011), the rover backed away from the target and drove about 8.7 metres north to set up for the final wide-baseline stereo imaging, the last imaging before leaving Santa Maria crater.
As of Sol 2532 (March 9, 2011), solar array energy production was 412 watt-hours with an elevated atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.05 and a solar array dust factor of 0.5565.
Total odometry is 26,695.66 metres.

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Colour View from Orbit Shows Mars Rover Beside Crater

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has nearly completed its three-month examination of a crater informally named "Santa Maria," but before the rover resumes its overland trek, an orbiting camera has provided a colour image of Opportunity beside Santa Maria.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired the image on March 1, while Opportunity was extending its robotic arm to take close-up photos of a rock called "Ruiz Garcia." From orbit, the tracks Opportunity made as it approached the crater from the west are clearly visible. Santa Maria crater is about 90 meters in diameter.

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Santa Maria crater
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False colour panorama of 'Santa Maria' crater taken by the Opportunity rover.

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Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rover that landed in the Meridiani Planum on Jan. 25, 2004, has chosen a spot with a view to celebrate its seventh anniversary on the red planet.
From the lip of the 80-metre Santa Maria Crater, Opportunity is using its mast-mounted camera to image stratification in the impacted rock. Formed by a relatively recent impact, the small crater still is old enough to have accumulated dunes on its floor. The rover will spend two months at Santa Maria before moving on to Endeavour.
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