* Astronomy

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The Mars Rover Exploration B (Mer-B), dubbed 'Opportunity', successfully landed on Mars, on January 25th, 2004. Touchdown was at roughly 5:05 a.m. Universal Time, in the Meridiani Hematite site.
The geographical coordinates for the center of Opportunity's landing target are 1.98 degrees south latitude and 5.94 degrees west longitude. The targeted landing area was an ellipse about 85 kilometres long and 11 kilometres wide.
The sister ship 'Spirit' landed in the Gusev Crater on the 4th January 2004. Opportunity landed on a smooth, flat plain, in the highest altitude landing ever attempted by Nasa. The Meridium Planum is a zone of grey hematite, an iron oxide.
A periodic fluctuation in the lander's first signal suggested that it rolled on the Martian surface for more than 20 minutes after landing. There were no fault tone signals, indicating that there were no errors during landing and rolling. Opportunity approached the Martian surface at a speed of 19,000 km/h. It deployed a parachute to slow its descent and airbags to cushion its landing. Rockets on the lander counteracted light gusts of wind during the descent.
Because of this, it touched down with a force of between two to three Gs - an exceptionally gentle landing. The rover was designed to withstand a landing of up to 40G; landing about 24 kilometres downrange from the center of the target area. The lander ended up lying on one of its side petals, so the next step was to make itself upright and deflate its airbags. The spacecraft sat in a shallow crater about 20 metres across. The exposed Martian bedrock, near the lander, had a slab-like form which was thought to have been created either by volcanic activity or by the action of water.
Images taken by a camera on the bottom of the lander during Opportunity's final descent showed a crater about 150 meters across, about one kilometre from the landing site.

Durable NASA Rover Beginning Ninth Year of Mars Work

Eight years after landing on Mars for what was planned as a three-month mission, NASA's enduring Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is working on what essentially became a new mission five months ago.
Opportunity reached a multi-year driving destination, Endeavour Crater, in August 2011. At Endeavour's rim, it has gained access to geological deposits from an earlier period of Martian history than anything it examined during its first seven years. It also has begun an investigation of the planet's deep interior that takes advantage of staying in one place for the Martian winter.
Opportunity landed in Eagle Crater on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time, three weeks after its rover twin, Spirit, landed halfway around the planet.
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An Unusual Vein of Deposited Rock on Mars


Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, NASA, JPL, Cornell

Pictured above is a vista taken near the western rim of Endeavour Crater by the Opportunity rover currently exploring Mars. The inset image shows a close up of the recently discovered mineral vein.
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NASA Mars Rover Finds Mineral Vein Deposited by Water
 
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found bright veins of a mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water. Analysis of the vein will help improve understanding of the history of wet environments on Mars.
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