[meteorite-list] NASA Rover Opportunity Takes First Peek Into Victoria Crater

[Ron Baalke]

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Image Advisory: 2006-111	        September 19, 2006	

NASA Rover Opportunity Takes First Peek Into Victoria Crater
 
On Monday, NASA's Mars rover Opportunity got to within about 
160 feet of the rim of the half-mile-wide Victoria Crater, 
the rover's destination since late 2004.

The new position gave Opportunity a glimpse of the crater's 
opposite wall.  That view from the navigation camera on the 
rover is available online at 

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/images/20060919.html .

"Opportunity has been heading toward Victoria for more than 
20 months, with no guarantee it would ever get there, so we 
are elated to see this view," said Justin Maki of NASA's Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., an imaging scientist 
on the rover team. "However, we still have another two or 
three short drives before Opportunity is really right at the 
rim, looking down into the crater." 

Once Opportunity reaches the rim, the rover's panoramic 
camera will begin the task of creating a high-definition 
color 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.

The width of Victoria crater is the equivalent of eight 
football fields placed end to end.  That makes it 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. 
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, are robotic geologists 
with instruments for examining rocks to learn about the 
ancient environmental conditions that existed at the 
times the rocks were formed.  Opportunity has already 
found exposed rock layers that were formed in flowing 
surface water and other layers formed as windblown sand.  
Analyzing the layers at Victoria could extend the story 
further back in time.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, 
manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission for the NASA 
Science Mission Directorate, Washington.  For additional 
images and information about the mission, visit 

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer .

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