[meteorite-list] Overhead View of Mars Rover 10 Years After Launch

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:01:38 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201307172201.r6HM1c54018092_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-224

Overhead View of Mars Rover 10 Years After Launch
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 17, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. -- An image from Mars orbit taken 10 years after the
launch of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the long-lived
rover on its trek to a new destination on Mars.

The color image taken July 8, 2013, by the High Resolution Imaging
Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter catches Opportunity crossing relatively level ground called
"Botany Bay" on its way to a rise called "Solander Point."

The image is available at
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17278 and
http://uahirise.org/ESP_032573_1775 .

"The Opportunity team particularly appreciates the color image of
Solander Point because it provides substantially more information on the
terrains and traverse that Opportunity will be conducting over the next
phase of our exploration of the rim of Endeavour crater," said Mars
Science Laboratory Project Scientist Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Opportunity was launched from Florida's Space Coast on July 7, 2003, PDT
and EDT (July 8, Universal Time). The rover finished nearly two years of
investigating an area called "Cape York" two months ago. Both Cape York
and Solander Point are raised portions of the rim of Endeavour Crater,
which is 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter.

HiRISE first imaged Opportunity in 2006, the year Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter began orbiting Mars with six science instruments. The rover had
then just reached the edge of Victoria Crater, which is half a mile (800
meters) in diameter. Opportunity spent two years investigating Victoria
Crater before heading toward much-larger Endeavour Crater.

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument
was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. The
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and Mars Exploration Rover Project
are managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, by JPL,
a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/mro . For more information about Opportunity, visit
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2013-224
Received on Wed 17 Jul 2013 06:01:38 PM PDT