Posted on 06/28/2007 5:22:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES - NASA's aging but durable Mars rover Opportunity will make what could be a trip of no return into a deep impact crater as it tries to peer further back than ever into the Red Planet's geologic history.
The descent into Victoria Crater received the go-ahead because the potential scientific returns are worth the risk that the solar-powered, six-wheel rover might not be able to climb out, NASA officials and scientists said Thursday.
The vehicle has been roaming Mars for nearly 3 1/2 Earth years. Scientists and engineers want to send it in while it still appears healthy.
"This crater, Victoria, is a window back into the ancient environment of Mars," said Alan Stern, the NASA associate administrator who authorized the move.
"Entering this crater does come with some unknowns," Stern added. "We have analyzed the entry point but we can't be certain about the terrains and the footing down in the crater until we go there. We can't guarantee, although we think we are likely to come back out of the crater."
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have been exploring opposite sides of Mars since landing in January 2004, discovering geologic evidence of rocks altered by water from a long-ago wetter period of the now-dusty planet.
Blasted open by a meteor impact, Victoria Crater is a half-mile across and about 200 to 230 feet deep — far deeper than anything else the rovers have explored.
"Because it's deeper it provides us access to just a much longer span of time," said Steve Squyres, the principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover mission from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He said it's not known just how much time is represented in the crater's layered walls.
Opportunity's first target will be a band of bright material like a bathtub ring about 10 feet below the crater's rim.
"That was the original, pre-impact surface so this bright stuff is the stuff that was in contact with the Martian atmosphere at the time Victoria formed, which may have been billions of years ago," Squyres said.
The initial entry is expected on July 7 or 9. To get into the crater, the rover will have to safely cross a ripple of wind-formed material at the lip of the crater, the kind of feature that has given it trouble before. The team plans to initially drive only far enough to have all six wheels on the slope and then back up to the top, to analyze how it performed.
"We call that a toe dip," said John Callas, the rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Since inception, the twin-rover mission has cost more than $900 million, and now costs $20 million to $24 million annually. Planned to last 90 days, the mission is in its fourth extension and another proposal would continue operations to the end of October 2008.
A false color image captured by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows 'Cape St. Vincent,' one of the many promontories that jut out from the walls of the Victoria Crater on Mars. NASA will send its Mars rover Opportunity into the gaping Martian crater in July to seek clues about the planet's bygone environment despite risks to the plucky little vehicle, officials said on Thursday. (NASA/Handout/Reuters)
I think this will be it’s final resting place. It done good though.
This June 26, 2007, image provided by NASA shows light-colored tracks left by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity as it traveled along the rim of Victoria Crater. The aging but durable Mars rover Opportunity will make what could be a trip of no return into this deep impact crater in an attempt to peer farther back than ever before into the geologic history of the Red Planet. This image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. (AP Photo/NASA)
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Lots more Rover stuff HERE..
It’s already last about 3 to 4 times as long as they had hoped for.. pretty cool little buggies.. they done good on a fairly tight budget..
c00l pics :)
Break out the ping list - they be claiming the universe is older than 6,000 - 10,000 years!
“”That was the original, pre-impact surface so this bright stuff is the stuff that was in contact with the Martian atmosphere at the time Victoria formed, which may have been billions of years ago,” Squyres said.”
Its route will only be a 20 degree descent, and it’s already survived 32 degrees.
Opportunity ping
There's a Pr0n name I didn't think of.
I thought a bit about over the title and uhhh what you said.. darn. lol
LOL!
“I think this will be it’s final resting place.’
Nah, it’s final resting place will be in the Mars City Museum.
==which may have been billions of years ago
If your goal is to prove evolution/old age of the universe, you might want to avoid posting articles containing words or phrases like... may, conceivably, could be, imaginably, might be, perchance, perhaps, etc. LOL
Since we currently have no way of dating the bathtub ring strata an the Victoria site, qualifying the time passed since the meteor strike seems prudent, unless one thinks Mars, too, cannot be more than six thousand years old.
Fyi..
They can have the whole crater covered by a glass walkway.
Do you see the face on the cliff wall in the lower right of your picture...LOL
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