NASA’s Mars Rover

Opportunistic Déjà Vu
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/
http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20110120a.html
NASA’s Mars Rover, Opportunity, had another Photo Op perched on the edge of another crater. While Opportunity sat at the edge of Santa Maria Crater on Mars the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) satellite orbited overhead and snapped the image below. This is the second time that HiRISE has been able to record a picture of Opportunity resting at the edge of a Mars crater. The last opportunity was October 3, 2006 when HiRISE imaged Victoria Crater with Opportunity perched at the crater’s edge moments before the rover carefully rolled down into the crater to explore the crater’s morphology.

Below is a expanded view of the Santa Maria Crater without annotations. Opportunity’s tracks are clearly visible running off the left of the image.

Below is an image of Santa Maria Crater taken by Opportunity from its perch shown above. The rock outcropping to the left below can be seen above at the bottom of the crater.

Opportunity took the image above by rotating and tipping up and down the Ball built mast residing atop the rover and taking smaller high resolution photos that were combined to form the mosaic above. The notches at the bottom give you an idea of an individual picture size.

The image above is a closer look at the rock outcropping displaying the impressive resolution of the camera. The diameter of the crater is about the length of a football field. On the horizon and off in the distance to the right is the crater Endurance which Opportunity visited earlier. Opportunity’s image of the Santa Maria Crater was sent back to Earth to celebrate the seventh anniversary of its landing on the planet. Not bad for a rover whose design life was thought to be 90 days!
Below are photos of Opportunity’s last Photo Op at the edge of Victoria Crater…


Below we are looking across “Duck Bay” on the rim of Victoria Crater. Opportunity has been superimposed at the edge of Cape Verde to give you a scale of the size of Victoria Crater. The rover is approximately the height of a 10 year old boy (5 ft.). Victoria Crater is roughly one mile in diameter.

I'm very proud of my Company