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NASA to Release New Images from Mars
JPL scientist said Mars rover Opportunity has arrived in a never-before studied location on the red planet and will sample rock types not seen before.
After a nearly three-year journey, NASA's Mars exploration rover Opportunity has reached the red planet's Endeavour crater to study rocks never seen before.
On Tuesday, Opportunity relayed its new location after having climbed out of Mars’ Victoria crater and traveled 13 miles to the rim of the planet’s Endeavour crater, which is 14 miles in diameter, and 25 times wider than the Victoria crater. The space agency announced it will release images of the arrival on Wednesday.
Opportunity is expected to recover images of never before seen terrains and rocks much older than anything explored previously by rover. NASA's twin Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit successfully completed their three-month missions in April of 2004, yet continued exploring the red planet.
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While Spirit stopped communicating with ground control in March 2010, Opportunity has continued bouncing along the Martian landscape and phoning home.
"We're soon going to get the opportunity to sample a rock type the rovers haven't seen yet,'' Matthew Golombek, Mars Exploration Rover science team member, at NASA's , said in a prepared statement.
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"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," he added.
The Endeavor crater became a tempting destination for NASA scientists after the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected clay minerals at the site. These minerals may have formed during a period of wetter and warmer conditions on Mars. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in August 2005 and is searching for evidence of water on Mars.
Scientists believe the information and findings coming from the Mars rovers and orbiter may make future human missions to Mars possible.
Imagery taken by Opportunity at the Endeavor crater will be released on NASA’s website and NASA television. Patch will post them as soon as they become available.
To learn more about Opportunity and view a color image taken as the rover approached the Victoria crater, visit NASA’s Mars rover webpage and rover site.
