Opportunity embarks on 10th year on Mars

[Saru]

Curiosity's smaller cousin has been trundling around on the Red Planet now for almost a decade.

Even though it’s a federal holiday on Monday, at least one government employee will still be working: the NASA rover Opportunity. The little robot, about to start its 10th year of exploring on Mars.

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[Waspie_Dwarf]

Not bad for a mission that was supposed to last 90 days.

[Timothy]

Just goes to show how so much effort is really worthwhile.

People may think it's overkill testing and designing everything over and over to the most minute detail, but this is testament to the work that has been done. So many things can go wrong, 10 years is a huge amount of time in those conditions.

Edit: Goodbye time.

Edited January 22, 2013 by Timonthy

[TheMolePatrol]

Impressive for solar panels on a dusty planet, I remember thinking 5 years was pretty neat

[pallidin]

Yeah, amazing to be sure. Like was said previously, certainly speaks highly of the engineer's and other's involved.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

NASA's Veteran Mars Rover Ready to Start 10th Year

As NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity neared the ninth anniversary of its landing on Mars, the rover was working in the 'Matijevic Hill' area seen in this view from Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam). Opportunity landed Jan. 24, 2004, PST (Jan. 25 UTC). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State Univ. › Full image and caption › See image gallery

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PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, one of the twin rovers that bounced to airbag-cushioned safe landings on Mars nine years ago this week, is currently examining veined rocks on the rim of an ancient crater.

Opportunity has driven 22.03 miles (35.46 kilometers) since it landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on Jan. 24, 2004, PST (Jan. 25, Universal Time). Its original assignment was to keep working for three months, drive about 2,000 feet (600 meters) and provide the tools for researchers to investigate whether the area's environment had ever been wet. It landed in a backyard-size bowl, Eagle Crater. During those first three months, it transmitted back to Earth evidence that water long ago soaked the ground and flowed across the surface.

Since then, the mission's team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has driven Opportunity across the plains of Meridiani to successively larger craters for access to material naturally exposed from deeper, older layers of Martian history.

Opportunity has operated on Mars 36 times longer than the three months planned as its prime mission.

"What's most important is not how long it has lasted or even how far it has driven, but how much exploration and scientific discovery Opportunity has accomplished," said JPL's John Callas, manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project. The project has included both Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, which ceased operations in 2010.

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/8183/720751mainpia1670943226.jpg

This month, Opportunity is using cameras on its mast and tools on its robotic arm to investigate outcrops on the rim of Endeavour Crater, 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. Results from this area of the rim, called "Matijevic Hill," are providing information about a different, possibly older wet environment, less acidic than the conditions that left clues the rover found earlier in the mission.

Timed with the anniversary of the landing, the rover team has prepared a color panorama of the Matijevic Hill area. The image is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/multimedia/pia16703.html .

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL also manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project and its rover, Curiosity.

For more information about Opportunity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov . You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at: http://twitter.com/MarsRovers and http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

2013-030

Source

Edited January 24, 2013 by Waspie_Dwarf