* Astronomy

NASA Rover Opportunity Takes First Peek Into Victoria Crater

A drive of about 60 meters on the 943rd Martian day of Opportunity's exploration of Mars' Meridiani Planum region (Sept. 18, 2006) brought the NASA rover to within about 50 meters of the rim of 'Victoria Crater,' the mission's long-term destination for the past 21 Earth months. Opportunity reached a location from which the navigation camera on top of the rover's mast could begin to see into the interior of Victoria.


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Credit NASA/JPL

This mosaic of five frames taken by the navigation camera reveals the upper portion of interior crater walls facing toward Opportunity from up to about 850 meters away. The amount of vertical relief visible at the top of the interior walls from this angle is about 15 meters.
Victoria Crater is about five times wider than "Endurance Crater," which Opportunity spent six months examining in 2004, and about 40 times wider than "Eagle Crater," where Opportunity first landed. The great lure of Victoria is the expectation that a thick stack of geological layers will be exposed in the crater walls, potentially several times the thickness that was previously studied at Endurance and therefore, potentially preserving several times the historical record.

Once Opportunity reaches the rim, the rover's panoramic camera will begin the task of creating a high-definition colour mosaic. That mosaic of images will provide scientists not only with a beautiful view of the crater, but will also provide geologic details of the crater walls.

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Grinding into 'Cape Faraday' - sol 936-940, September 15, 2006:

Opportunity is healthy and is currently driving toward "Victoria Crater," which is a little over 100 metres away. On sol 936 (Sept. 11, 2006), a short bump was made to a robotic arm rock target called "Cape Faraday" near the crater "Emma Dean." Opportunity drove 1.45 meters between sols 936-940.

Sol-by-sol summaries:

Sol 936 (Sept. 11, 2006): The morning of this sol saw the rover monitoring the amount of dust on itself using the panoramic mast assembly. Opportunity completed a panoramic camera tau, assessing the clarity of the sky. The rover then bumped to the robotic arm target at Emma Dean Crater and took a panoramic camera image of the arm's work area. Another measurement was done before the Mars Odyssey pass. During the pass, Opportunity used the miniature thermal emission spectrometer and had a look at that instrument's calibration target.

Sol 937: Opportunity used the morning to examine certain points in the sky with its panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission spectrometer. The miniature thermal emission spectrometer took measurements of the sky and ground, and the instrument's calibration targets were examined.

Sol 938: Opportunity completed another assessment of the clarity of the sky. The rover used its miniature thermal emission spectrometer to measure points on the sky and ground and used its navigation camera to search for clouds. The rover's miniature thermal emission spectrometer had a look at targets "Thompson" and "Jones."

Sol 939: The rover did another assessment of the sky, a tau measurement. The rover used its microscopic imager to snap a photo of Cape Faraday before grinding. The rock abrasion tool ground into the target and the microscopic imager took the "after" shot. The panoramic camera took images in the rover's driving direction. The alpha particle X-ray spectrometer was used after the Odyssey pass.

Sol 940 (Sept. 15, 2005): On this morning, Opportunity used its panoramic camera to examine targets in the sky and used the miniature thermal emission spectrometer to look at the sky and ground. The rover examined Cape Faraday with the Moessbauer spectrometer, and took a look at the rock "Beaman" with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer. During the Odyssey pass, the rover investigated the miniature thermal emission spectrometer calibration target.

As of sol 936, (Sept. 11, 2006) Opportunity's total odometry was 9130.29 metres.

Panorama of the 15 metre crater Emma Dean (Epsilon ) on the flank of Victoria crater on Meridiani Plain, Mars.
Taken by Opportunity Sept 9-10, 2006 ( sol 934-935).


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After driving more than 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) from the site where it landed in January 2004, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity approached "Victoria Crater" in September 2006. The crater is about 750 meters (half a mile) across. That is about six times wider than "Endurance Crater," which Opportunity spent six months examining in 2004, and about 35 times wider than "Eagle Crater," where Opportunity first landed. The walls of Victoria hold the scientific allure of much taller stacks of geological layers -- providing the record of a longer span of the area's environmental history -- than Opportunity has been able to inspect on the Meridiani plains or at smaller craters.

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