For the last three years, NASA’s Opportunity Rover has been slowly making its way to Mars’s Endeavour Crater, and now it’s finally made it. Here’s one of the first photographs from this alien crater…but the real work is just beginning.
As we discussed last week, there’s a chance that Opportunity could discover signs of ancient life in this crater, which pretty much instantly makes it one of the most exciting areas of study in the history of uncrewed space exploration. While we’re still probably a ways away from unlocking the secrets of the crater, we can at least marvel at this sight of an alien world, one that Opportunity has journeyed three years to see.
http://io9.com/5829067/mars-rover-opportunity-is-about-to-embark-on-a-new-mission-looking-for-signs-of-life
Here’s a little extra information on what’s ahead for Opportunity, courtesy of NASA:
Expansive Endeavour crater stretches 22 kilometers from rim to rim, making it the largest crater ever visited by a Mars Exploration Rover (MER). It is hypothesized that the impact that created the crater exposed ancient rock that possibly formed under wet conditions, and if so, this rock may yield unique clues to the watery past of Mars. Pictured above, the west rim of Endeavour looms just ahead of the Opportunity rover. Opportunity may well spend the rest of its operational life exploring Endeavour, taking pictures, spinning its wheels, and boring into intriguing rocks.
For more, check out our previous post. Image via NASA.
