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TOPIC: The Opportunity rover
Blobrana


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"Opportunity" to Spend 7th Anniversary at Stadium-size Crater



The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been photographed beside a 100-meter-diameter Martian crater by the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Opportunity will explore the Santa Maria crater over the next several weeks. January serves as an important milestone for Opportunity and its twin, Spirit: This month, both rovers are celebrating their seventh anniversaries on Mars.

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Blobrana


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Opportunity Studying a Football-Field Size Crater

On Dec. 16, 2010, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity reached a crater about the size of a football feet-some 90 metres in diameter. The rover team plans to use cameras and spectrometers during the next several weeks to examine rocks exposed at the crater, informally named "Santa Maria."
A mosaic of image frames taken by Opportunity's navigation camera on Dec. 16 shows the crater's sharp rim and rocks ejected from the impact that had excavated the crater.
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A new Mars movie clip gives us a rover's-eye view of a bluish Martian sunset, while another clip shows the silhouette of the moon Phobos passing in front of the sun.
America's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, carefully guided by researchers with an artistic sense, has recorded images used in the simulated movies.
These holiday treats from the rover's panoramic camera, or Pancam, offer travel fans a view akin to standing on Mars and watching the sky.
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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:   Rover Arrives at Santa Maria Crater - sols 2445-2450, December 9-15, 2010:

Opportunity has arrived at the 80-metre diameter Santa Maria crater, a stop on the way to Endeavour crater.
Opportunity will conduct an in-situ (contact) science campaign at the crater, which will likely extend through Solar Conjunction (through early February 2011).
In addition to a sophisticated wide-baseline stereo-imaging survey from several positions halfway around the crater, the rover will explore minerals located around the southeast portion of the crater, using the instruments on the end of the rover's robotic arm.
Opportunity drove several times in the last week, with drives on Sols 2447 (Dec. 11, 2010), 2449 (Dec. 14, 2010), and 2450 (Dec. 15, 2010), totalling over 300 metres. Morning Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) relay passes are being sequenced as power permits to off-load additional data from the rover, permitting more frequent drives.
As of Sol 2449 (Dec. 14, 2010), solar array energy production was 592 watt-hours, with a slightly elevated atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.727 and a solar array dust factor of 0.6355.
Total odometry is 26,430.86 metres (26.43 kilometres).

SantaMariab.jpg
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Blobrana


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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Imaging Small Craters on the Way to Endeavour - sols 2429-2436, November 23-30, 2010:

Opportunity continues to make good progress towards Endeavour crater while collecting remote-sensing science observations (imaging) of small craters along the way.

The rover drove on Sols 2429 (Nov. 23, 2010), 2433 (Nov. 27, 2010), and 2436 (Nov. 30, 2010), covering over 81 metres, 89 metres  and 100 metres, respectively. An alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) atmospheric argon measurement was performed on Sol 2430 (Nov. 24, 2010). The miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) elevation mirror is opened to the environment at regular intervals in the possibility of eventual cleaning by wind events. Wheel currents continue to be well-behaved during the extensive driving.

As of Sol 2436 (Nov. 30, 2010), solar array energy production was 587 watt-hours with a slightly elevated atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.753 and a solar array dust factor of 0.645.

Total odometry is 25,555.33 metres (25.56 kilometres).

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Intrepid Crater
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'Intrepid' Crater on Mars
Intrepid Crater on Mars

"Intrepid" crater on Mars carries the name of the lunar module of NASA's Apollo 12 mission, which landed on Earth's moon Nov. 19, 1969. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this view of the crater during the 2,417th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Nov. 11, 2010).
This view is presented in approximately true colour, combining exposures taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) through three filters admitting wavelengths of 752 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers. Intrepid crater is about 20 metres in diameter. That is about the same size as the crater where Opportunity spent its first two months on Mars: Eagle crater.

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NASA Mars Rover Images Honour Apollo 12

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has visited and photographed two craters informally named for the spacecraft that carried men to the moon 41 years ago this week.
Opportunity drove past "Yankee Clipper" crater on Nov. 4 and reached "Intrepid crater" on Nov. 9. For NASA's Apollo 12, the second mission to put humans onto the moon, the command and service module was called Yankee Clipper, piloted by Dick Gordon, and the lunar module was named Intrepid, piloted by Alan Bean and commanded by the late Pete Conrad. The Intrepid landed on the moon with Bean and Conrad on Nov. 19, 1969, while Yankee Clipper orbited overhead. Their landing came a mere four months after Apollo 11's first lunar landing.
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Oileán Ruaidh Meteorite
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This is an image of the meteorite that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity found and examined in September 2010.
Opportunity's cameras first revealed the meteorite in images taken on Sol 2363 (Sept. 16, 2010), the 2,363rd Martian day of the rover's mission on Mars.
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Opportunity rover finds 6th Mars meteorite

Opportunity poked and prodded meteorite No. 5 on Saturday (Sept. 25) and Sunday to get up close and personal with the Martian rock. It had spotted the dark, toaster-sized rock at the end of a drive on Sept. 16, and scientists immediately suspected it was an iron meteorite after seeing the rover's photos.
The rock has a dark colour and rounded texture, and it's perched on the Martian surface much like a meteorite would be, rover scientists said.
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Mars Rover Opportunity Approaching Possible Meteorite

Images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took at the end of an 81-metre drive on Sept. 16 reveal a dark rock about 31 metres away. The rover's science team has decided to go get a closer look at the toaster-sized rock and determine whether it is an iron meteorite.
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