Monday, September 17, 2007

Opportunity dives into Victoria Crater

The Martian rover Opportunity took its first dive into Victoria Crater on mars recently, after a quick in-and-out slippage test was performed to ensure a safe exit. John Callas, the Mars rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, cited that he wanted to "maintain a safe egress route out of the crater for Opportunity" before any extensive exploring was conducted. Opportunity's exploration of this crater may prove to be highly beneficial to the Mars rover project, as it is exploring a light-toned layer of exposed rock that might preserve evidence of interaction between the Martian atmosphere and the surface from millions of years ago.

The full text of this article can be viewed at this link:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070914_victoria_opp.html

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