Opportunity's Big Adventure on the Red Planet

As the Fourth of July holiday winds down, and Americans head home and back to the office, one of the NASA Martian rovers managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will continue the spirit of independence with a journey of its own. The rover, called "Opportunity," is scheduled to begin its descent into the massive Mars crater, Victoria, after July 13.

In a press conference Thursday, June 28, NASA/JPL announced that the decision to take the aging rover into the crater is worth the risk of potential damage to the vehicle.

"We are getting more out of the science," said Alan Stern, NASA associate administrator.

It was Stern who gave the final approval for the rover to enter the crater.

This is not the first crater Opportunity has explored; it rolled into the Endurance crater at the beginning of its mission almost two years ago. This time, however, the rover is older and Martian worn.

"It's been a long traverse to get where we are right now," said John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover project manager.

Opportunity and another rover, Spirit, have operated 12 times longer than their original missions of just 90 days.

Callas described the toll that has been taken on Opportunity as it has explored the red planet. Some of the injuries included a steering jam that happened in the right front of the vehicle; at one point the rover was partially embedded in Martian soil which took weeks for engineers and scientists to extract to the degradation of its robotic arm.

The scientific data that could be gained from this exploration, however, far outweighs the risk factor, Callas said. Even with Opportunity's bumps and bruises, Callas is confident the rover is ready.

"The rover is just as capable now as when it [traveled into] Endurance," Callas said in an interview with the Valley Sun. "And we now have a more experienced team."

The rover is scheduled to enter the crater at an area called Duck Bay. It arrived to the site of the crater about nine months ago and has since driven close to a quarter of the way clockwise around the rim. It is now back at Duck Bay, doing last minute preparations to enter.

The descent is less extreme than that of Endurance but the team is still being cautious.