[meteorite-list] Opportunity Mars Rover Arrives at Endeavour Crater

[Ron Baalke]

August 10, 2011

Dwayne C. Brown 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Priscilla Vega/Guy Webster 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-354-1357/-6278 
priscilla.r.vega at jpl.nasa.gov/guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov   


RELEASE: 11-265

NASA MARS ROVER ARRIVES AT NEW SITE ON MARTIAN SURFACE

WASHINGTON -- After a journey of almost three years, NASA's Mars 
Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the Red Planet's Endeavour 
crater to study rocks never seen before. 

On Aug. 9, the golf cart-sized rover relayed its arrival at a location 
named Spirit Point on the crater's rim. Opportunity drove 
approximately 13 miles (21 kilometers) after climbing out of the 
Victoria crater. 

"NASA is continuing to write remarkable chapters in our nation's story 
of exploration with discoveries on Mars and trips to an array of 
challenging new destinations," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden 
said. "Opportunity's findings and data from the upcoming Mars Science 
Laboratory will play a key role in making possible future human 
missions to Mars and other places where humans have not yet been." 

Endeavour crater, which is more than 25 times wider than Victoria 
crater, is 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. At Endeavour, 
scientists expect to see much older rocks and terrains than those 
examined by Opportunity during its first seven years on Mars. 
Endeavour became a tantalizing destination after NASA's Mars 
Reconnaissance Orbiter detected clay minerals that may have formed in 
an early warmer and wetter period. 

"We're soon going to get the opportunity to sample a rock type the 
rovers haven't seen yet," said Matthew Golombek, Mars Exploration 
Rover science team member, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 
in Pasadena, Calif. "Clay minerals form in wet conditions so we may 
learn about a potentially habitable environment that appears to have 
been very different from those responsible for the rocks comprising 
the plains." 

The name Spirit Point informally commemorates Opportunity's twin 
rover, which stopped communicating in March 2010. Spirit's mission 
officially concluded in May. 

"Our arrival at this destination is a reminder that these rovers have 
continued far beyond the original three-month mission," said John 
Callas, Mars Exploration Rover project manager at JPL. 

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which launched Aug. 12, 2005, is 
searching for evidence that water persisted on the Martian surface 
for a long period of time. Other Mars missions have shown water 
flowed across the surface in the planet's history, but scientists 
have not determined if water remained long enough to provide a 
habitat for life. 

NASA launched the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity in the summer of 
2003. Both completed their three-month prime missions in April 2004 
and continued years of extended operations. They made important 
discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been 
favorable for supporting microbial life. 

JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science 
Mission Directorate in Washington. Imagery taken after Opportunity 
arrived at Endeavour will be released on NASA's website and NASA 
Television as soon as available on Wednesday. For more information 
about the rover and a color image as it approached the crater, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/rovers   

For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv   
	
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