NASA rover gains Martian vista from ridgeline

May 20, 2014

NASA rover gains Martian vista from ridgeline

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

The rim surrounding Endeavour Crater on Mars recedes southward, then sweeps around to the east in a vista obtained by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The view is from high on the south end of the "Murray Ridge" portion of the crater's western rim.

The image was assembled from multiple exposures taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) in April. It shows locations along the rim that the rover has subsequently reached and may explore in the future.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover spent several months exploring portions of Murray Ridge. Since reaching the local high point on the ridgeline from which this panorama was taken, the rover has proceeded southward to reach an exposure of aluminum-rich clay detected from orbit.

During Opportunity's first decade on Mars and the 2004-2010 career of its twin, Spirit, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project yielded a range of findings proving wet environmental conditions on ancient Mars—some very acidic, others milder and more conducive to supporting life.

Opportunity's Tracks Near Crater Rim Ridgeline: The component images for this 360-degree panorama were taken by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity after the rover drove about 97 feet (29.5 meters) during the mission's 3,642nd Martian day, or sol (April 22, 2014). The rover drove southwestward that sol, so the tracks from this end-of-drive position recede toward the northeast. For scale, the distance between the two parallel tracks is about 3.3 feet (1 meter). The position is just west of the ridgeline of the west rim of Endeavour Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Approaching a Target Deposit on Mars Crater Rim: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to capture the component images for this 360-degree view near the ridgeline of Endeavour Crater's western rim. The view is centered toward southeast, from the rover's position just west of the western rim's ridgeline on the mission's 3,659th Martian day, or sol (May 10, 2014). The western rim of the crater extends northward to the left and southward to the right. Endeavour Crater is about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. Its distant rim is visible on the horizon at center. The outcrop on the slope to the right of center corresponds to the northern end of an area where a concentration of aluminum-containing clay has been detected in observations by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer (CRISM) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. That detection from orbit made the outcrop a favored target for investigation by Opportunity. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Endeavour Crater Rim From 'Murray Ridge' on Mars, False Color. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

More information: The panorama is available online:

Provided by JPL/NASA

�鶹��Ժ

NASA rover gains Martian vista from ridgeline

Soviet-era spacecraft is expected to plummet to Earth this weekend after 53 years

Private Japanese lunar lander enters orbit around moon ahead of a June touchdown

Juno mission gets under Jupiter's and Io's surface

Intelligent neural network model enhances space reactor shielding design

NASA's oldest active astronaut returns to Earth on 70th birthday

How to catch the shooting stars of spring's first meteor shower, the Lyrids

NASA experiment shows solar wind might make water on the moon

Ancient wooden spears found in Germany may have been wielded by Neanderthals, a new study suggests

Early galaxies may contribute to the 'afterglow' of the universe

Your fingers wrinkle in the same pattern every time you're in the water for too long, study shows

Origins of language: Wild chimps mirror linguistic structures in human language

A more realistic look at DNA in action: Study shows it behaves differently when crowded by molecules

Bismuth-based hybrid materials enable highly sensitive, eco-friendly X-ray detectors

Modeling study finds Venus's crust is surprisingly thin

Room-temperature mid-infrared photodetector promises advances in environmental and medical monitoring

Can frisky flies save human lives? How a bacterial infection encourages promiscuity

Machine learning approach leads to discovery of high-performance infrared functional materials

Oxygen-stable biocatalyst from a thermophilic bacterium could boost hydrogen production

Get Instant Summarized Text (GIST)