Mars Rover Ready for Risky Descent into Crater

Riding with Robots writes "After months of scoping out the terrain, the robotic geologist Opportunity is ready to drive down into Victoria Crater on the Meridiani Plains of Mars. Mission managers acknowledge the hardy rover may never come back out, but say they think the potential for discovery is worth it. 'The rover has operated more than 12 times longer than its originally intended 90 days. The scientific allure is the chance to examine and investigate the compositions and textures of exposed materials in the crater's depths for clues about ancient, wet environments. As the rover travels farther down the slope, it will be able to examine increasingly older rocks in the exposed walls of the crater. '"

Comments

John Callas Vid

[TrevorB]

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/video/movie s/opportunity/VictoriaDigitalStory.mov

JPL produced Video of Project Manager John Callas discussing the entry.

sandy dunes and icy crater

[wizardforce]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_crater if there is water ice underneath MArs' surface or even temporarily exposed ice, this is the spot. what ever created the crater whether a deorbited moon, asteroid or comet likely left water behind after the impact. so even if the rover doesnt come out again it will be well wortth the sacrifice.

Re:It will make it!

[MaineCoon]

On the other hand, Victoria crater is pretty big (about a kilometer across), and could take many months to explore. The next closest crater is 25km away. In 3 years, Opportunity has travelled less than 11 km.

It's not coming back out.

[Derling Whirvish]

The talus slopes that it has to traverse to get back out are covered with the little hematite 'blueberries.' Its wheels will just slip and slide. It's like driving on ball bearings. You can check in but you can't check out.

Re:Oh.. can I play too?

[dpilot]

>Come on, who can name a single astronaut since they ended Apollo?

You really shouldn't put a challenge like this on Slashdot. Wrong audience.

Robert Crippen and John Young - flew the first space shuttle flight, though I believe John Young also flew on both Apollo and Gemini, not sure about Crippen.

Sally Ride - first American woman in space.

Judy Resnick - Hometown (Akron, Ohio) woman killed on Challenger.
Crista McAuliffe - New Hampshire schoolteacher also killed on Challenger.

Shannon Lucid - Spent a looooong time on either Mir or ISS.

"Pinky" Nelson - Prominent role in fixing a satellite, I believe the Solar Max.

Then without knowing the names, we have the Hawaiian astronaut who died on Challenger, and had an Enterprise-D (fictional) shuttle (Okuzu?) named after him. There's also diaper-woman who recently made the news.

I know it's not a very long list, but you did say, "one".