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Mise na Mars v obrazech. Podívejte se, co vyfotila sonda Opportunity

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Panorama of 'Santa Maria' Crater for Opportunity's Anniversary (False Color) NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending the seventh anniversary of its landing on Mars investigating a crater called "Santa Maria," which has a diameter about the length of a football field. This scene looks eastward across the crater. Portions of the rim of a much larger crater, Endurance, appear on the horizon. The panorama spans 125 compass degrees, from north-northwest on the left to south-southwest on the right. It has been assembled from multiple frames taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on Opportunity during the 2,453rd and 2,454th Martian days, or sols, of the rover's work on Mars (Dec. 18 and 19, 2010). The view is presented in false color to emphasize differences among materials in the rocks and the soils. It combines images taken through three different Pancam filters admitting light with wavelengths centered at 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). Seams have been eliminated from the sky portion of the mosaic to better simulate the vista a person standing on Mars would see. Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on Jan. 24, 2004, Universal Time (Jan. 25, Pacific Time) for a mission originally planned to last for three months. Since that prime mission, the rover has continued to work in bonus-time extended missions. Both Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. By mid-January 2011, Opportunity reached a location at the southeastern edge of Santa Maria crater. The rover team developed plans for Opportunity to spend a few weeks investigating rocks at that site during solar conjunction, a period when communications between Earth and Mars are curtailed because the sun is almost directly between the two planets. After completion of its work at Santa Maria, the rover will resume a long-term trek toward Endeavour. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

Textures of 'Santa Maria' Crater, Sol 2476 This image from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover at the edge of "Santa Maria" crater shows diverse textures of the crater. Contrast has been enhanced to emphasize the textures. Opportunity used its navigation camera to record this view during the 2,476th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Jan. 10, 2011). The rover's position was close to the crater's lip on the southeastern edge of the crater. Santa Maria is about 90 meters (295 feet) in diameter. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Close-up of a Meteorite - 'Oileán Ruaidh' (False Color) This is an image of the meteorite that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity found and examined in September 2010. Opportunity's cameras first revealed the meteorite in images taken on Sol 2363 (Sept. 16, 2010), the 2,363rd Martian day of the rover's mission on Mars. This view was taken with the panoramic camera on Sol 2371 (Sept. 24, 2010). The science team used two tools on Opportunity's arm -- the microscopic imager and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer -- to inspect the rock's texture and composition. Information from the spectrometer confirmed that the rock is a nickel-iron meteorite. The team informally named the rock "Oileán Ruaidh" (pronounced ay-lan ruah), which is the Gaelic name for an island off the coast of northwestern Ireland. Opportunity departed Oileán Ruaidh and resumed its journey toward the mission's long-term destination, Endeavour Crater, on Sol 2374 (Sept. 28, 2010) with a drive of about 100 meters (328 feet). The component images were taken through three Pancam filters admitting wavelengths of 753 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers. This view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

Opportunity's Close-up of 'Oileán Ruaidh' (Left Eye) An iron meteorite is the latest quarry for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The rover's cameras revealed the meteorite on its trek to its long-term destination, Endeavour crater, in images taken on Sol 2363 (Sept. 16, 2010), the 2,363rd Martian day of the rover's mission on Mars. This view was taken with the navigation camera on Sol 2368 (Sept. 21, 2010), after a drive the preceding sol to get close to the rock. The meteorite is about half a meter (20 inches) long. This image is the left-eye member of a stereo pair. The science team used two tools on Opportunity's arm -- the microscopic imager and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer -- to inspect the rock's texture and composition. The team informally named the rock "Oileán Ruaidh" (pronounced ay-lan ruah), which is the Gaelic name for an island off the coast of northwestern Ireland. Opportunity departed Oileán Ruaidh and resumed its journey toward Endeavour on Sol 2374 (Sept. 28, 2010) with a drive of about 100 meters (328 feet). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Opportunity's Surroundings After Sol 2363 Drive This mosaic of images from the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows surroundings of the rover's location following an 81-meter (266-foot) drive during the 2,363rd Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's mission on Mars (Sept. 16, 2010). The camera took the component images for this 360-degree panorama during sols 2363 to 2365. The terrain includes light-toned bedrock and darker ripples of wind-blown sand. For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks in the right half of the image is about 1 meter (about 40 inches). This view is presented as a cylindrical projection. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Opportunity Amid Mars Craters (Unannotated) This map of the region around NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the relative locations of several craters, including Endeavour. A super-resolution view generated from images taken by Opportunity on May 12, 2010, (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/multimedia/gallery/pia13197-unlabeled.html) shows some detail in a portion of Endeavour's rim. The map covers an area about 55 kilometers (34 miles) across in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. It is a mosaic of images from the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. North is toward the top. Opportunity's explorations have all been within the upper left quadrant of the region covered in this map. Opportunity explored Endurance Crater (barely visible about 7 kilometers or 4 miles from the left edge of this area and 2 kilometers or 1 mile from the top) during the first year after the rover's January 2004 arrival on Mars for a mission originally scheduled to last for three months. Since the summer of 2008, when Opportunity finished two years of studying Victoria Crater (about 8 kilometers or 5 miles from the left edge and 9 kilometers or 6 miles from the top), the rover's long-term destination has been the much larger Endeavour Crater (the large crater at the center). By the spring of 2010, Opportunity had covered more than a third of the charted, 19-kilometer (12-mile) route from Victoria to Endeavour and reached an area with a gradual, southward slope offering a view of a portion of Endeavour's elevated rim. After the rover team chose Endeavour as a long-term destination, the goal became even more alluring when observations with the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, also on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, found clay minerals exposed at Endeavour. James Wray, of Cornell University, and co-authors reported observations of those minerals in Geophysical Research Letters in 2009. Clay minerals, which form under wet and relatively neutral pH conditions, have been found extensively on Mars from orbit but have not been examined on the surface. Additional observations with that spectrometer are helping the rover team choose which part of Endeavour's rim to visit first with Opportunity. The crater at the bottom center of the map is Iazu. Material that was ejected during the impact that excavated Iazu is visible on the horizon in Opportunity's May 12, 2010, view of the Endeavor rim. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

Opportunity's Surroundings After Sol 2363 This mosaic of images from the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows surroundings of the rover's location following an 81-meter (266-foot) drive during the 2,363rd Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's mission on Mars (Sept. 16, 2010). The camera took the component images for this 360-degree panorama during sols 2363 to 2365. The terrain includes light-toned bedrock and darker ripples of wind-blown sand. For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks in the right half of the image is about 1 meter (about 40 inches). This view is presented as a vertical projection. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Carbonate-Containing Martian Rocks (False Color) Lengthy detective work with data NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit collected in late 2005 has confirmed that an outcrop called "Comanche" contains a mineral indicating that a past environment was wet and non-acidic, possibly favorable to life. Spirit used its panoramic camera to capture this view of the Comanche outcrop during the 689th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Dec. 11, 2005). The rover's Moessbauer spectrometer, miniature thermal emission spectrometer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometer each examined targets on Comanche that month. On June 3, 2010, scientists using data from all three spectrometers reported that about one-fourth of the composition of Comanche is magnesium iron carbonate. That concentration is 10 times higher than for any previously identified carbonate in a Martian rock. Carbonates originate in wet, near-neutral conditions but dissolve in acid. The find at Comanche is the first unambiguous evidence from either Spirit of its twin, Opportunity, for a past Martian environment that may have been more favorable to life than the wet but acidic conditions indicated by the rovers' earlier finds. In this image, Comanche is the dark reddish mound above the center of the view. The image is presented in false color, which makes some differences between materials easier to see. It combines three separate exposures taken through filters admitting wavelengths of 750 nanometers, 530 nanometers and 430 nanometers. The main Comanche outcrop is about 5 meters (16 feet) from left to right from this perspective. The paler material visible at bottom right is part of another outcrop, "Algonquin." Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

Rock with Odd Coating Beside a Young Martian Crater, False Color This image from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a rock called "Chocolate Hills," which the rover found and examined at the edge of a young crater called "Concepción." The rover used the tools on its robotic arm to examine the texture and composition of target areas on the rock with and without the dark coating. The rock is about the size of a loaf of bread. Initial analysis was inconclusive about whether the coating on the rock is material that melted during the impact event that dug the crater. This view is presented in false color, which makes some differences between materials easier to see. It combines three separate images taken through filters admitting wavelengths of 750 nanometers, 530 nanometers and 430 nanometers. Opportunity took the image during the 2,147nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Feb. 6, 2010). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

Coating on Rock Beside a Young Martian Crater This image from the microscopic imager on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows details of the coating on a rock called "Chocolate Hills," which the rover found and examined at the edge of a young crater called "Concepción." The rover took this image during the 2,150th Martian day, or sol, of its mission on Mars (Feb. 9. 2010). This target patch on Chocolate Hills is called "Aloya." The view covers an area about 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across. The color comes from imaging the same area with the panoramic camera and is false color to highlight differences in materials. The coating includes a layer in which peppercorn-size spheres nicknamed "blueberries" are packed densely. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

Sample from Deep in Martian Crust - 'Marquette Island' NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity examined a rock called "Marquette Island" from mid-November 2009 until mid-January 2010. Studies of texture and composition suggest that this rock, not much bigger than a basketball, originated deep inside the Martian crust. A crater-digging impact could have excavated the rock and thrown it a long distance, to where Opportunity found it along the rover's long trek across the Meridiani plain toward Endeavour Crater. This approximately true-color view of Marquette Island comes from combining three exposures that Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) took through different filters during the rover's 2,117th Martian day, or sol, on Mars (Jan. 6, 2010). On the preceding sol, Opportunity's rock abrasion tool brushed dust out of the circular area where that tool had ground into the rock on sols 2100 and 2103 (Dec. 20 and 23, 2009). The dark circle left by the rock abrasion tool's work is approximately 5 centimeters (2 inches) in diameter. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

Endeavour on the Horizon (False Color) NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to capture this view of the rim of Endeavour crater, the rover's destination in a multi-year traverse along the sandy Martian landscape. The image was taken during the 2,226 Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's mission on Mars (April 28, 2010). Endeavour is 21 kilometers (13 miles) in diameter, about 25 times wider than Victoria crater, the last major crater Opportunity visited. This image shows an outcrop of rocks at the foot of the rover and beyond these rocks rippled dunes, which are about 20 centimeters (8 inches) tall. The west rim of Endeavour, about 13 kilometers (8 miles) away, appears on the left on the horizon. The rim of smaller, more-distant Iazu crater, which is 7 kilometers (4 miles) in diameter and about 35 kilometers (22 miles) away, is on the far right. On the horizon in between is a blanket of material ejected from the impact that created Iazu crater, and darker features that are portions of the west and southwest rim of Endeavour. Opportunity began a marathon from Victoria to Endeavour in September 2008 after spending two years exploring Victoria. The intended route, about 19 kilometers (12 miles) long, has headed south before turning east in order to bypass potentially hazardous sand ripples to the east, larger than the ripples in this image. This view is presented in false color, which is used to emphasize differences in surface materials. It combines three exposures taken through filters admitting wavelengths of 750 nanometers, 530 nanometers and 430 nanometers. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/University of Arizona

Magnified Look at a Meteorite on Mars NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its microscopic imager to get this view of the surface of a rock called "Block Island" during the 1,963rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Aug. 1, 2009). The triangular pattern of small ridges seen at the upper right in this image and elsewhere on the rock is characteristic of iron-nickel meteorites found on Earth, especially after they have been cut, polished and etched. Block Island has been identified as an iron-nickel meteorite based on this surface texture and analysis of its composition by Opportunity's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. At about 60 centimeters (2 feet) across, it is the largest meteorite yet found on Mars. This image shows a patch 32 millimeters by 32 millimeters (1.3 inches by 1.3 inches) on the surface of Block Island while the target was fully illuminated by the sun. This target on the rock is informally named "New Shoreham." The vertical white streaks, especially near the top and bottom of the image, are artifacts caused by saturation of the camera's CCD (charge-coupled device, or image recorder) where sunlight glinted off metallic facets. The triangular pattern in the texture of iron-nickel meteorites, called the Widmanstatten pattern, formed more than 4.5 billion years ago as the metal cooled. One iron-nickel mineral, kamacite, formed thin layers along the surface of crystals of another, taenite, which contains less nickel. The two minerals differ in their resistance to either etching by acid or erosion by wind-blown sand, so those processes can make the pattern visible. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University/USGS

Opportunity's First Neighborhood on Rim of Endeavour This image taken from orbit shows the path of the path driven by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in the weeks around the rover's arrival at the rim of Endeavour crater. The sol number (number of Martian days since the rover landed on Mars) are indicated along the route. Sol 2674 corresponds to Aug. 2, 2011; Sol 2688 corresponds to Aug. 16, 2011. The route leads to a rock informally named "Tisdale 2," which is a block of material ejected by the excavation of a small crater called "Odyssey" on the Endeavour rim fragment called "Cape York." The next Endeavour rim fragment to the south is called "Sutherland Point," and a gap between Cape York and Sutherland Point is called "Botany Bay." The base image of the map is a portion of an image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, on July 23, 2010. Other image products from this observation are available at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_018701_1775 . NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the spacecraft development and integration contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Approaching 'Tisdale 2' Rock on Rim of Endeavour Crater NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take this picture showing a light-toned rock, "Tisdale 2," during the 2,690th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Aug. 18, 2011). The rock is about 12 inches (30 centimeters) tall. In subsequent sols, the rover used tools on its robotic arm to examine Tisdale 2. That rock and others on the ground beyond it were apparently ejected by the impact that excavated a 66-foot-wide (20-meter-wide) crater, called "Odyssey," which is nearby to the left (north) of this scene. Odyssey and these rocks are on a low ridge called "Cape York," which is a segment of the western rim of Endeavour crater. Part of Opportunity's array of photovoltaic cells is visible in the foreground. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Arrival at 'Spirit Point' by Mars Rover Opportunity NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity arrived at the rim of Endeavour crater on Aug. 9, 2011, after a trek of more than 13 miles (21 kilometers) lasting nearly three years since departing the rover's previous major destination, Victoria crater, in August 2008. After arrival, Opportunity used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to record the images combined into this mosaic view. The view scene shows the "Spirit Point" area of the rim, including a small crater, "Odyssey" on the rim, and the interior of Endeavour beyond. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

Small 'Odyssey' Crater on Rim of Huge 'Endeavour' Crater NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity arrived at the rim of Endeavour crater on Aug. 9, 2011, after a trek of more than 13 miles (21 kilometers) lasting nearly three years since departing the rover's previous major destination, Victoria crater, in August 2008. After arrival, Opportunity used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to record the images combined into this mosaic view. The view scene shows the "Spirit Point" area of the rim, including a small crater, "Odyssey" on the rim, and the interior of Endeavour beyond. Endeavour crater is about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter and may expose geological records older than any Opportunity has seen in the rovers 90 months on Mars. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Color Panorama of 'Santa Maria' Crater for Opportunity's Anniversary NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending the seventh anniversary of its landing on Mars investigating a crater called "Santa Maria," which has a diameter about the length of a football field. This scene looks eastward across the crater. Portions of the rim of a much larger crater, Endurance, appear on the horizon. The panorama spans 125 compass degrees, from north-northwest on the left to south-southwest on the right. It has been assembled from multiple frames taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on Opportunity during the 2,453rd and 2,454th Martian days, or sols, of the rover's work on Mars (Dec. 18 and 19, 2010). Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on Jan. 24, 2004, Universal Time (Jan. 25, Pacific Time) for a mission originally planned to last for three months. Since that prime mission, the rover has continued to work in bonus-time extended missions. Both Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. By mid-January 2011, Opportunity reached a location at the southeastern edge of Santa Maria crater. The rover team developed plans for Opportunity to spend a few weeks investigating rocks at that site during solar conjunction, a period when communications between Earth and Mars are curtailed because the sun is almost directly between the two planets. After completion of its work at Santa Maria, the rover will resume a long-term trek toward Endeavour. This view combines images taken through three different Pancam filters admitting light with wavelengths centered at 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). This "natural color" is the rover team's best estimate of what the scene would look like if we were there and able to see it with our own eyes. Seams have been eliminated from the sky portion of the mosaic to better simulate the vista a person standing on Mars would see. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

Color Panorama of 'Santa Maria' Crater for Opportunity's Anniversary NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending the seventh anniversary of its landing on Mars investigating a crater called "Santa Maria," which has a diameter about the length of a football field. This scene looks eastward across the crater. Portions of the rim of a much larger crater, Endurance, appear on the horizon. The panorama spans 125 compass degrees, from north-northwest on the left to south-southwest on the right. It has been assembled from multiple frames taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on Opportunity during the 2,453rd and 2,454th Martian days, or sols, of the rover's work on Mars (Dec. 18 and 19, 2010). Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on Jan. 24, 2004, Universal Time (Jan. 25, Pacific Time) for a mission originally planned to last for three months. Since that prime mission, the rover has continued to work in bonus-time extended missions. Both Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. By mid-January 2011, Opportunity reached a location at the southeastern edge of Santa Maria crater. The rover team developed plans for Opportunity to spend a few weeks investigating rocks at that site during solar conjunction, a period when communications between Earth and Mars are curtailed because the sun is almost directly between the two planets. After completion of its work at Santa Maria, the rover will resume a long-term trek toward Endeavour. This view combines images taken through three different Pancam filters admitting light with wavelengths centered at 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). This "natural color" is the rover team's best estimate of what the scene would look like if we were there and able to see it with our own eyes. Seams have been eliminated from the sky portion of the mosaic to better simulate the vista a person standing on Mars would see. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

Late Afternoon Shadows at Endeavour Crater on Mars NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity catches its own late-afternoon shadow in this dramatically lit view eastward across Endeavour Crater on Mars. The rover used the panoramic camera (Pancam) between about 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. local Mars time to record images taken through different filters and combined into this mosaic view. Most of the component images were recorded during the 2,888th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars (March 9, 2012). At that time, Opportunity was spending low-solar-energy weeks of the Martian winter at the Greeley Haven outcrop on the Cape York segment of Endeavour's western rim. In order to give the mosaic a rectangular aspect, some small parts of the edges of the mosaic and sky were filled in with parts of an image acquired earlier as part of a 360-degree panorama from the same location. Opportunity has been studying the western rim of Endeavour Crater since arriving there in August 2011. This crater spans 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter, or about the same area as the city of Seattle. This is more than 20 times wider than Victoria Crater, the largest impact crater that Opportunity had previously examined. The interior basin of Endeavour is in the upper half of this view. The mosaic combines about a dozen images taken through Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see, such as the dark sandy ripples and dunes on the crater's distant floor. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove about 12 feet (3.67 meters) on May 8, 2012, after spending 19 weeks working in one place while solar power was too low for driving during the Martian winter. The winter worksite was on the north slope of an outcrop called Greeley Haven. The rover used its rear hazard-avoidance camera after nearly completing the May 8 drive, capturing this view looking back at the Greeley Haven. The dark shape in the foreground is the shadow of Opportunity's solar array. The view is toward the southeast. Since landing in the Meridiani region of Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time and EST (Jan. 24, PST), Opportunity has driven 21.4 miles (34.4 kilometers). Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004. Both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit stopped communicating in 2010. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Opportunity's Eighth Anniversary View From 'Greeley Haven' (False Color) This mosaic of images taken in mid-January 2012 shows the windswept vista northward (left) to northeastward (right) from the location where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending its fifth Martian winter, an outcrop informally named "Greeley Haven." Opportunity's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) took the component images as part of full-circle view being assembled from Greeley Haven. The view includes sand ripples and other wind-sculpted features in the foreground and mid-field. The northern edge of the the "Cape York" segment of the rim of Endeavour Crater forms an arc across the upper half of the scene. Opportunity landed on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time and EST (Jan. 24, PST). It has driven 21.4 miles (34.4 kilometers) as of its eighth anniversary on the planet. In late 2011, the rover team drove Opportunity up onto Greeley Haven to take advantage of the outcrop's sun-facing slope to boost output from the rover's dusty solar panels during the Martian winter. Research activities while at Greeley Haven include a radio-science investigation of the interior of Mars, inspections of mineral compositions and textures on the outcrop, and monitoring of wind-caused changes on scales from dunes to individual soil particles. The image combines exposures taken through Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.

Artist's Concept of Rover on Mars An artist's concept portrays a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. Two rovers have been built for 2003 launches and January 2004 arrival at two sites on Mars. Each rover has the mobility and toolkit to function as a robotic geologist. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University

Opportunity Beside a Small, Young Crater NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the exposures combined into this view of a wee crater, informally named "Skylab," along the rover's route. The component images were taken during the 2,594th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (May 12, 2011), after Opportunity had driven 239 feet (72.7 meters) that sol. This is a young crater about 30 feet (9 meters) in diameter. How young? The blocks of material ejected from the crater-digging impact sit on top of the sand ripples near the crater. This suggests, from the estimated age of the area's sand ripples, that the crater was formed within the past 100,000 years. The dark sand inside the crater attests to the mobility of fine sand in the recent era in this Meridiani Planum region of Mars. The view spans 216 degrees of the compass, from northwest on the right to south on the right. It is presented as a cylindrical projection. Opportunity successfully completed its three-month prime mission on Mars in April 2004 and has continued in bonus extended missions since then. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera for this northward view of tracks the rover left on a drive from one energy-favorable position on the northern end of a sand ripple to another. The rover team calls this strategy hopping from lily pad to lily pad. Opportunity took this image on the 2,235th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (May 8, 2010). The tracks are from a 14.87-meter (49-foot) drive southward on the preceding sol. Mars' southern hemisphere was in the minimal sunshine period close to the winter solstice, which occurred May 13, 2010 (Universal Time). Making progress on Opportunity's long trek to Endeavour Crater remains the extended mission's priority, but the amount of solar energy is so limited at this season that Opportunity needs to rest to recharge batteries for sols between drives. The sun crosses the sky low in the north. Choosing end points for drives that give a favorable northward tilt for the rover's solar panels makes the recharging go faster. The sand ripples in this part of Meridiani Planum are aligned generally north-south, so this means ending drives on the northern ends of the ripples. Opportunity took this image from the northern end of a ripple that is not visible in the image. For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 1 meter (3 feet). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Autonomous Hazard Checks Leave Patterned Rover Tracks on Mars A dance-step pattern is visible in the wheel tracks near the left edge of this scene recorded by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the 2,554th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (April 1, 2011). The pattern comes from use of a new technique for Opportunity to autonomously check for hazards in its way while driving backwards. For scale, the distance between the parallel tracks of the left and right wheels is about 1 meter (about 40 inches). The rover team routinely tells Opportunity to drive backwards because experience has shown this is less likely to increase the amount current drawn by the drive motor in the right-front wheel. More than two years ago, the right-front wheel on Opportunity began showing signs of drawing more current than other wheels. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, had shown similar elevated current in the right-front wheel for more than a year before that wheel on Spirit stopped working in 2006. The view looks back after Sol 2554's drive at the tracks imprinted by the drive. The drive covered at total of 118.6 meters (389 feet). Rover drivers had planned the drive based on images taken from the rover's Sol 2553 location. The first portion -- which imprinted the more distant, simpler, tracks -- was a backward "blind" drive. Rover drivers command blind drives -- either forward or backward -- when they can assess the safety of the terrain well enough from the images taken at the drive's starting point that they don't need the rover to pause and look for obstacles along the route. For the Sol 2554 drive over flat ground, the drivers chose a blind drive of 100 meters (328 feet). They commanded Opportunity to begin using backward autonomous navigation after it reached the end of the blind drive on that sol. That "backward autonav" driving imprinted the nearest portion of the tracks visible here. The rover team began using the backward autonav strategy last year as a modification of forward autonav, which the team has used since the rovers' first year on Mars. In autonav mode, the rover pauses periodically during a drive, uses its stereo navigation camera to view the route in the intended drive direction, analyzes the images for potential hazards in the route, and makes a decision about what to do based on that analysis. One catch, when driving backwards, is that the navigation camera's view is partially blocked over the rear of the rover by the low-gain antenna. So, lest a hazard be hidden behind that antenna, the backward autonav technique includes turning the rover 17.5 degrees away from the drive direction just before taking the navigation camera images. This gives the camera an unobstructed view in the drive direction. This little maneuver -- repeated every 1.2 meters -- is what created the dance-step pattern in the foreground portion of the rover tracks in this image. In forward autonav, Opportunity can plot its own way around an obstacle and continue driving. In backward autonav, Opportunity just ends the drive for the day if the onboard analysis of images detects a hazard in the route. On the level terrain Opportunity has been crossing this spring on the trek from Santa Maria crater toward Endeavour crater, obstacles are few, so backward autonav has significantly extended the distance the rover can cover in one sol's driving. This mosaic combining several pointings of the navigation camera is presented in a cylindrical projection. The center of the image is toward the northeast, and the full view covers a sweep of 252 degrees, from westward on the left to southeastward on the right. Opportunity has been exploring the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since early 2004 in a mission originally planned to last for three months. Both Opportunity and Spirit have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

'Santa Maria' Crater in 360-Degree View, Sol 2451 A football-field-size crater, informally named "Santa Maria," dominates the scene in this 360-degree view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. Following a 25-meter (82-foot) drive on the 2,451st Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Dec. 16, 2010), Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the frames combined into this mosaic. South is at the center. North is at both ends. The view is presented as a cylindrical projection. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This is the first dust devil that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has observed in the rover's six-and-a-half years on Mars. The whirlwind appeared in a routine drive-direction image taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera right after a drive during the 2,301st Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (July 15, 2010). Contrast has been stretched, and the image has been carefully calibrated to make the dust devil easier to see against the Martian sky. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, has observed dozens of dust devils at its location in Gusev Crater halfway around Mars from Opportunity's location in the Meridian Planum region. Opportunity conducted systematic searches for dust devils in past years without seeing any. A rougher and dustier surface at Gusev makes dust devils form more readily there than at Meridiani. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University/Texas A

This view from the navigation camera near the top of the mast on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the tracks left by the rover as it drove southward and backward, dragging its inoperable right-front wheel, to the location where the rover broke through a crust in April 2009 and became embedded in soft sand. The rover team's chosen strategy for beginning the attempt to extricate Spirit from the sand trap is to follow these tracks out, heading north. Spirit took this image during the 2,092nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Nov. 21, 2009). Spirit performed the third planned drive of the extrication attempt on that sol. For scale, the distance between the right and left wheel tracks is about 1 meter (3 feet). The rover team began commanding extrication drives in November after months of Earthbound testing and analysis to develop a strategy for attempting to drive Spirit out of this soft-soil site, called "Troy." The extrication drives are expected to make slow, if any, progress in coming weeks, and the probability of success in escaping from Troy is uncertain. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity climbed out of "Victoria Crater" following the tracks it had made when it descended into the 800-meter-diameter (half-mile-diameter) bowl nearly a year earlier. The rover's navigation camera captured this view back into the crater just after finishing a 6.8-meter (22-foot) drive that brought Opportunity out onto level ground during the mission's 1,634th Martian day, or sol (Aug. 28, 2008). The rover laid down the first tracks at this entry and exit point during its 1,291st sol (Sept. 11, 2007), after about a year of exploring around the outside of Victoria Crater for the best access route to the interior. On that sol, Opportunity drove a short distance into the crater and then backed out to check that the footing was good enough to trust this point as an exit route when the work in the crater was finished. Two sols later, Opportunity drove in again for its extended investigation of the rock layers exposed inside the crater. While inside, the rover spent several months using the contact instruments on its robotic arm to analyze the composition of the rock layers it could drive across on the surface of the upper slope. Then Opportunity drove close to the base of the "Cape Verde" promontory that forms part of the crater rim and appears in the upper center of this image. From that perspective, the rover used its panoramic camera to examine details of layering in the 6-meter-tall (20-foot-tall) cliff. For scale, the distance between the parallel tracks left by the rover's wheels is about 1 meter (39 inches) from the middle of one track to the middle of the other. After getting past the top of the inner slope of the crater, the Sol 1634 drive also got through a sand ripple where the tracks appear deepest. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

'Greeley Haven' Site for Opportunity's Fifth Martian Winter (False Color) This mosaic was acquired by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) on Sol 2793 (Dec. 2, 2011). It shows a north-facing outcrop, informally named "Greeley Haven," where Opportunity will work during the rover's fifth Martian winter. The rover team chose this designation as a tribute to the influential planetary geologist Ronald Greeley (1939-2011), who was a member of the science team for the Mars rovers and many other interplanetary missions. The site is of interest not only for its geologic features but because it has favorable northerly slopes to optimize Opportunity's solar energy as winter approaches in the southern hemisphere of Mars. After this mosaic was acquired, Opportunity backed up the slope to park at approximately 16 degrees northerly tilt and used tools on its robotic arm (Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD) to examine rock and soil targets. After deciding that the site could serve the mission well for the next several months, the team designated it as a memorial for Greeley, who taught generations of planetary scientists at Arizona State University, Tempe, until his death on Oct. 27, 2011. The site is near the northern tip of the "Cape York" segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The image combines exposures taken through Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see. Plans for research continuing through the months at Greeley Haven include a radio-science investigation of the interior of Mars, inspections of mineral compositions and textures on the outcrop, and assembly of a full-circle, color panorama of the surroundings. The planned full-circle image will be called the Greeley Panorama. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.

Opportunity's View Approaching Rim of Endeavour NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to capture this view of a portion of Endeavour crater's rim after a drive during the rover's 2,676th Martian day, or sol, of working on Mars (Aug. 4, 2011). The drive covered 396 feet (120.7 meters) and put the rover with about that much distance to go before reaching the chosen arrival site at the rim, called "Spirit Point." Endeavour crater has been the rover team's destination for Opportunity since the rover finished exploring Victoria crater in August 2008. Endeavour, with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers), offers access to older geological deposits than any Opportunity has seen before. This view looks toward a portion of the rim south of Spirit Point, including terrain that Opportunity may explore in the future. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

Autonomous Hazard Checks Leave Patterned Rover Tracks on Mars A dance-step pattern is visible in the wheel tracks near the left edge of this scene recorded by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the 2,554th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (April 1, 2011). The pattern comes from use of a new technique for Opportunity to autonomously check for hazards in its way while driving backwards. For scale, the distance between the parallel tracks of the left and right wheels is about 1 meter (about 40 inches). The rover team routinely tells Opportunity to drive backwards because experience has shown this is less likely to increase the amount current drawn by the drive motor in the right-front wheel. More than two years ago, the right-front wheel on Opportunity began showing signs of drawing more current than other wheels. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, had shown similar elevated current in the right-front wheel for more than a year before that wheel on Spirit stopped working in 2006. The view looks back after Sol 2554's drive at the tracks imprinted by the drive. The drive covered at total of 118.6 meters (389 feet). Rover drivers had planned the drive based on images taken from the rover's Sol 2553 location. The first portion -- which imprinted the more distant, simpler, tracks -- was a backward "blind" drive. Rover drivers command blind drives -- either forward or backward -- when they can assess the safety of the terrain well enough from the images taken at the drive's starting point that they don't need the rover to pause and look for obstacles along the route. For the Sol 2554 drive over flat ground, the drivers chose a blind drive of 100 meters (328 feet). They commanded Opportunity to begin using backward autonomous navigation after it reached the end of the blind drive on that sol. That "backward autonav" driving imprinted the nearest portion of the tracks visible here. The rover team began using the backward autonav strategy last year as a modification of forward autonav, which the team has used since the rovers' first year on Mars. In autonav mode, the rover pauses periodically during a drive, uses its stereo navigation camera to view the route in the intended drive direction, analyzes the images for potential hazards in the route, and makes a decision about what to do based on that analysis. One catch, when driving backwards, is that the navigation camera's view is partially blocked over the rear of the rover by the low-gain antenna. So, lest a hazard be hidden behind that antenna, the backward autonav technique includes turning the rover 17.5 degrees away from the drive direction just before taking the navigation camera images. This gives the camera an unobstructed view in the drive direction. This little maneuver -- repeated every 1.2 meters -- is what created the dance-step pattern in the foreground portion of the rover tracks in this image. In forward autonav, Opportunity can plot its own way around an obstacle and continue driving. In backward autonav, Opportunity just ends the drive for the day if the onboard analysis of images detects a hazard in the route. On the level terrain Opportunity has been crossing this spring on the trek from Santa Maria crater toward Endeavour crater, obstacles are few, so backward autonav has significantly extended the distance the rover can cover in one sol's driving. This mosaic combining several pointings of the navigation camera is presented in a cylindrical projection. The center of the image is toward the northeast, and the full view covers a sweep of 252 degrees, from westward on the left to southeastward on the right. Opportunity has been exploring the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since early 2004 in a mission originally planned to last for three months. Both Opportunity and Spirit have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Intrepid' Crater on Mars (False Color) "Intrepid" crater on Mars carries the name of the lunar module of NASA's Apollo 12 mission, which landed on Earth's moon Nov. 19, 1969. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this view of the crater during the 2,417th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Nov. 11, 2010). This view is presented in false color to make differences in surface materials more visible. It combines exposures taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) through three filters admitting wavelengths of 752 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers. Intrepid crater is about 20 meters (66 feet) in diameter. That is about the same size as the crater where Opportunity spent its first two months on Mars: Eagle crater. The rover's look-back image into Eagle crater after driving out of it in 2004 is at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05755. The rover science team uses a convention of assigning the names of historic ships of exploration as the informal names for craters seen by Opportunity. Apollo 12's lunar module Intrepid carried astronauts Alan Bean and Pete Conrad to the surface of Earth's moon while crewmate Dick Gordon orbited overhead in the mission's command and service module, Yankee Clipper. A view of Bean next to Intrepid on the moon is online at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo12/html/as12-46-6749.html. An image of Conrad inspecting robotic lander Surveyor 3, with Intrepid on the lunar horizon nearby, is online at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo12/html/as12-48-7133.html. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

'Yankee Clipper' Crater on Mars (Left Eye) "Yankee Clipper" crater on Mars carries the name of the command and service module of NASA's 1969 Apollo 12 mission to the moon. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this stereo view of the crater during a pause in a 102-meter (365-foot) drive during the 2,410th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Nov. 4, 2010). This view is a mosaic of three frames taken by the left eye of Opportunity's navigation camera. Yankee Clipper crater is about 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter. The rover science team uses a convention of assigning the names of historic ships of exploration as the informal names for craters seen by Opportunity. Apollo 12's Yankee Clipper orbited Earth's moon while the mission's lunar module carried two astronauts to the lunar surface on Nov. 19, 1969, and later brought all three of the mission's astronauts back to Earth, arriving Nov. 24, 1969. A dramatic view of Earth rising over a lunar horizon, taken from Apollo 12's Yankee Clipper, is online at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo12/html/as12-47-6891.html. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Opportunity's View on Sol 1798 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the images combined into this 180-degree view of the rover's surroundings during the 1,798th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's surface mission (Feb. 13, 2009). North is at the center, west on the left, east on the right. The rover had driven 111 meters (364 feet) southward on the preceding sol. Tracks from that drive recede northward in this view. For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 1 meter (about 40 inches). The terrain in this portion of Mars' Meridiani Planum region includes dark-toned sand ripples and lighter-toned bedrock. This view is presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

View from Southwest of Victoria Crater This mosaic of frames from the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity gives a view to the northeast from the rover's position on its 1,687th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 22, 2008). By that date, Opportunity had driven southwestward from Victoria Crater, beginning a long trek toward a larger crater, Endeavour. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

D-Star Panorama by Opportunity (False Color) NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers have been getting smarter as they get older. This view from Opportunity shows the tracks left by a drive executed with more onboard autonomy than has been used on any other drive by a Mars rover. Opportunity made the curving, 15.8-meter (52-foot) drive during its 1,160th Martian day, or sol (April 29, 2007). It was testing a navigational capability called "Field D-star," which enables the rover to plan optimal long-range drives around any obstacles in order to travel the most direct safe route to the drive's designated destination. Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, did not have this capability until the third year after their January 2004 landings on Mars. Earlier, they could recognize hazards when they approached them closely, then back away and try another angle, but could not always find a safe route away from hazards. Field D-Star and several other upgrades were part of new onboard software uploaded from Earth in 2006. The Sol 1,160 drive by Opportunity was a Martian field test of Field D-Star and also used several other features of autonomy, including visual odometry to track the rover's actual position after each segment of the drive, avoidance of designated keep-out zones, and combining information from two sets of stereo images to consider a wide swath of terrain in analyzing the route. Two days later, on Sol 1,162, (May 1, 2007), Opportunity was still at the location it reached during that drive, and the rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) took the exposures combined into this image. Victoria Crater is in the background, at the top of the image. The Sol 1,160 drive began at the place near the center of the image where tracks overlap each other. Tracks farther away were left by earlier drives nearer to the northern rim of the crater. For scale, the distance between the parallel tracks left by the rover's wheels is about 1 meter (39 inches) from the middle of one track to the middle of the other. The rocks in the center foreground are roughly 7 to 10 centimeters (3 to 4 inches) tall. The rover could actually drive over them easily, but for this test, Settings in the onboard hazard-detection software were adjusted to make these smaller rocks be considered dangerous to the rover. The patch of larger rocks to the right was set as a keep-out zone. The location from which this image was taken is where the rover stopped driving to communicate with Earth. A straight line from the starting point to the destination would be 11 meters (36 feet). Opportunity plotted and followed a smoothly curved, efficient path around the rocks, always keeping the rover in safe areas. This view combines separate images taken through the Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers. It is presented in a false-color stretch to bring out subtle color differences in the scene. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

Impressive Impact This stunning image features the heat shield impact site of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. This is an approximately true-color mosaic of panoramic camera images taken through the camera's 750-, 530-, and 430-nanometer filters. The mosaic was acquired on Opportunity's sol 330 (Dec. 28, 2004), shortly after Opportunity arrived to investigate the site where its heat shield hit the ground south of "Endurance Crater" on Jan. 24, 2004. On the left, the main heat shield piece is inverted and reveals its metallic insulation layer, glinting in the sunlight. The main piece stands about 1 meter tall (about 3.3 feet) and about 13 meters (about 43 feet) from the rover. The other large, flat piece of debris near the center of the image is about 14 meters (about 46 feet) away. The circular feature on the right side of the image is the crater made by the heat shield's impact. It is about 2.8 meters (9.2 feet) in diameter but only about 5 to 10 centimeters (about 2 to 4 inches) deep. The crater is about 6 meters (about 20 feet) from Opportunity in this view. Smaller fragments and debris can be seen all around the impact site. The impact excavated a large amount of reddish subsurface material. Darker materials cover part of the crater's flat floor and have formed a streak or jet of material pointing toward the two largest heat shield fragments. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

No Shortcut for Opportunity (Right Eye) As NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity was making its way back toward its original entry path into "Endurance Crater," scientists and engineers spotted what they hoped might be a shortcut for climbing out of the crater. The possible exit path, pictured on the far right of this image where the outcrop is punctuated, was eventually deemed too hazardous for the rover to attempt. Opportunity would have had to cross terrain with a slope of 28 degrees and face a tall rock outcropping very close to the exit chute opening which, itself, is too narrow for the rover to pass. This view combines several frames taken by the rover's navigation camera during Opportunity's 297th sol on Mars (Nov. 24, 2004). It is the right-eye member of a stereo pair presented in a cylindrical-perspective projection with geometric seam correction. The location from which the image was taken has been designated as Opportunity's Site 38, Position 97. Image credit: NASA/JPL

'Burns Cliff' Color Panorama NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured this view of "Burns Cliff" after driving right to the base of this southeastern portion of the inner wall of "Endurance Crater." The view combines frames taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera between the rover's 287th and 294th martian days (Nov. 13 to 20, 2004). This is a composite of 46 different images, each acquired in seven different Pancam filters. It is an approximately true-color rendering generated from the panoramic camera's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 430-nanometer filters. The mosaic spans more than 180 degrees side to side. Because of this wide-angle view, the cliff walls appear to bulge out toward the camera. In reality the walls form a gently curving, continuous surface. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

'Von Braun' Mound in Spirit's Drive Direction 4/23/09 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its navigation camera to capture this view of the terrain toward the southeast from the location Spirit reached on the 1,871st Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (April 8, 2009). The mound on the horizon in the upper left is informally called "Von Braun" and is one of the features that rover team has designated as a possible investigation site in future months. From the location where Spirit was when the image was taken, Von Braun is about 160 meters (525 feet) away. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

'Payson' Panorama in False Color 3/7/06 The panoramic camera aboard NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity acquired this panorama of the "Payson" outcrop on the western edge of "Erebus" Crater during Opportunity's sol 744 (Feb. 26, 2006). From this vicinity at the northern end of the outcrop, layered rocks are observed in the crater wall, which is about 1 meters (3.3 feet) thick. The view also shows rocks disrupted by the crater-forming impact event and subjected to erosion over time. To the left of the outcrop, a flat, thin layer of spherule-rich soils overlies more outcrop materials. The rover is currently traveling down this "road" and observing the approximately 25-meter (82-foot) length of the outcrop prior to departing Erebus crater. The panorama camera took 28 separate exposures of this scene, using four different filters. The resulting panorama covers about 90 degrees of terrain around the rover. This false-color rendering was made using the camera's 753-nanometer, 535-nanometer and 423-nanometer filters. Using false color enhances the subtle color differences between layers of rocks and soils in the scene so that scientists can better analyze them. Image-to-image seams have been eliminated from the sky portion of the mosaic to better simulate the vista a person standing on Mars would see. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/Cornell

'Erebus Crater' on the Horizon 9/26/05 This is a mosaic assembled from some of the images taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the rover's 590th sol (Sept. 21, 2005). The view is toward the south and includes rock exposures north of "Erebus Crater," with the crater in the background. The rover will investigate the exposed rocks in the foreground and will take additional panoramic-camera images of Erebus Crater, which is about 300 meters (about 984 feet) across. Erebus Crater dwarfs the landing-site crater, "Eagle Crater," which measures about 22 meters (72 feet) in diameter. And, it is nearly twice the diameter of "Endurance Crater," which, at 130 meters (430 feet) wide, has been compared to a stadium. The camera's red filter was used for taking the images in this mosaic. It admits light with a wavelength of 750 nanometers. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

A Moment Frozen in Time 6/10/05 On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera (Pancam) mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th martian day, or sol. Spirit was commanded to stay awake briefly after sending that sol's data to the Mars Odyssey orbiter just before sunset. This small panorama of the western sky was obtained using Pancam's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 430-nanometer color filters. This filter combination allows false color images to be generated that are similar to what a human would see, but with the colors slightly exaggerated. In this image, the bluish glow in the sky above the Sun would be visible to us if we were there, but an artifact of the Pancam's infrared imaging capabilities is that with this filter combination the redness of the sky farther from the sunset is exaggerated compared to the daytime colors of the martian sky. Because Mars is farther from the Sun than the Earth is, the Sun appears only about two-thirds the size that it appears in a sunset seen from the Earth. The terrain in the foreground is the rock outcrop "Jibsheet", a feature that Spirit has been investigating for several weeks (rover tracks are dimly visible leading up to Jibsheet). The floor of Gusev crater is visible in the distance, and the Sun is setting behind the wall of Gusev some 80 km (50 miles) in the distance. This mosaic is yet another example from MER of a beautiful, sublime martian scene that also captures some important scientific information. Specifically, sunset and twilight images are occasionally acquired by the science team to determine how high into the atmosphere the martian dust extends, and to look for dust or ice clouds. Other images have shown that the twilight glow remains visible, but increasingly fainter, for up to two hours before sunrise or after sunset. The long martian twilight (compared to Earth's) is caused by sunlight scattered around to the night side of the planet by abundant high altitude dust. Similar long twilights or extra-colorful sunrises and sunsets sometimes occur on Earth when tiny dust grains that are erupted from powerful volcanoes scatter light high in the atmosphere. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Texas A /Cornell

Opportunity's Sol 446 Position 5/6/05 This mosaic of navigation-camera frames from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, presented in a vertical projection, shows the rover's position after it dug itself to wheel-hub depth in a small dune during its 446th martian day, or sol (April 26, 2005). The elongated dune, or ripple, is about one-third of a meter (one foot) tall and 2.5 meters (8 feet) wide. Opportunity had completed nearly 40 meters (131 feet) of a planned 90-meter (295-foot) drive that sol when its wheels began slipping. The rover was driving backwards at the time. The rover team frequently alternates between backwards and forwards driving to keep wheel lubrication well distributed. The wheels kept rotating enough times to have covered the rest of the distance if they hadn't been slipping, but the rover eventually barely inched forward. After a turn at the end of the planned drive, Opportunity sensed that it had not turned properly and stopped moving. The rover team spent more than a week designing and conducting tests under simulated Mars conditions on Earth before choosing the best way for Opportunity to drive out of the dune. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Angled Layers in Super Resolution 12/13/04 Researchers used a special imaging technique with the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity to get as detailed a look as possible at a target region near eastern foot of "Burns Cliff." The intervening terrain was too difficult for driving the rover closer. The target is the boundary between two sections of layered rock. The layers in lower section (left) run at a marked angle to the layers in next higher section (right). This view is the product of a technique called super resolution. It was generated from data acquired on sol 288 of Opportunity's mission (Nov. 14, 2004) from a position along the southeast wall of "Endurance Crater." Resolution slightly higher than normal for the panoramic camera was synthesized for this view by combining 17 separate images of this scene, each one "dithered" or pointed slightly differently from the previous one. Computer manipulation of the individual images was then used to generate a new synthetic view of the scene in a process known mathematically as iterative deconvolution, but referred to informally as super resolution. Similar methods have been used to enhance the resolution of images from the Mars Pathfinder mission and the Hubble Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Out of 'Endurance,' Heading South 12/13/04 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity climbed out of "Endurance Crater" during the rover's 315th sol (Dec. 12, 2004), and used its rear hazard-avoidance camera to look out across the plains south of the crater. After Opportunity examines the nearby heat shield that protected it during its descent through Mars' atmosphere, the rover team plans to drive the rover south to a rugged region described as etched terrain. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Tantalizing 'Tipuna' 12/10/04 On the way out of "Endurance Crater," NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been making observations along the crater wall, an intriguing and revealing geological path. One factor that immediately caught the eyes of scientists was a noticeable difference between light rocks and dark rocks along the crater rim. The pictured rock, "Tipuna," lies just under the dividing line, in the dark section. Opportunity's panoramic camera took this image during the rover's 306th martian day, or sol (Dec. 3, 2004). The image gives an up-close view of Tipuna, revealing complex layering that was likely caused by ancient flowing water or wind deposition. Scientists have used the rover's rock abrasion tool to expose interior material for analysis on both dark and light rocks near Tipuna. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

'Homestake' Vein, False Color This false-color view of a mineral vein called "Homestake" comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The vein is about the width of a thumb and about 18 inches (45 centimeters) long. Opportunity examined it in November 2011 and found it to be rich in calcium and sulfur, possibly the calcium-sulfate mineral gypsum. Homestake is near the edge of the "Cape York" segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. Exposures combined into this view were taken through Pancam filters admitting light with wavelengths centered at 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see. The exposures were taken during the 2,769th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's career on Mars (Nov. 7, 2011). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

Western Edge of 'Cape York,' with Bright Vein The navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this view of the western edge of "Cape York" during the 2,761st Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Oct. 30, 2011). Cape York is a segment of the rim of Endeavour Crater. A bright vein, informally named "Homestake," is visible on the right side of the image. The vein is about as wide as a thumb and about 18 inches (45 centimeters) long. Opportunity examined it in November 2011 and found it to be rich in calcium and sulfur, possibly the calcium-sulfate mineral gypsum. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Shadow Across 'Chester Lake' on Endeavour Rim, Sol 2710 The robotic arm of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity casts a shadow on a rock outcrop called "Chester Lake" in this image taken by the rover's front hazard-avoidance camera. The image was taken during the 2,710th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars (Sept. 8, 2011). Chester Lake, an exposure of bedrock on the rim of Endeavour crater, is the second rock approached by Opportunity for close inspection since the rover arrived at Endeavour in August 2011 after a three-year trek. The rock is on a low ridge called "Cape York," which is a segment of the western rim of Endeavour crater. Endeavour is about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Opportunity at Work Examining 'Tisdale 2,' Sol 2695 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its front hazard-avoidance camera to take this picture showing the rover's arm extended toward a light-toned rock, "Tisdale 2," during the 2,695th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Aug. 23, 2011). Tisdale 2 is about 12 inches (30 centimeters) tall. The rover used two instruments on the robotic arm, the microscopic imager and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, to examine Tisdale 2. In this image, the turret at the end of the arm is positioned so that the microscopic imager is facing the rock. Tisdale 2 and other rocks on the ground beyond it were apparently ejected by the impact that excavated a 66-foot-wide (20-meter-wide) crater, called "Odyssey," which is nearby to the left (north) of this scene. Odyssey and these rocks are on a low ridge called "Cape York," which is a segment of the western rim of Endeavour crater. Endeavour is about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. Portions of the interior and eastern rim of Endeavour are visible near the top of this image. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

'Ridout' Rock on Rim of Odyssey Crater NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity looked across a small crater on the rim of a much larger crater to capture this raw image from its panoramic camera during the rover's 2,685th Martian day, or sol, of work on Mars (Aug. 13, 2011). Opportunity had arrived at the western rim of 13-mile-diameter (21-kilometer-diameter) Endeavour crater four days earlier. A portion of the northeastern rim of Endeavour forms the distant horizon in this view. A crater about 66 feet (20 meters) in diameter is on the Endeavour rim near Opportunity's arrival point. From a position south of Odyssey, this view is dominated by a rock informally named "Ridout" on the northeastern rim of Odyssey. The rock is roughly the same size as the rover, which is 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) long. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

West Rim of Endeavour Crater on Mars (False Color) A portion of the west rim of Endeavour crater sweeps southward in this color view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. This crater -- with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers) -- is more than 25 times wider than any that Opportunity has previously approached during the rover's 90 months on Mars. The view is presented in false color to emphasize differences among materials in the rocks and the soils. This view combines exposures taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) on the 2,678th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Aug. 6, 2011) before driving on that sol. The subsequent Sol 2678 drive covered 246 feet (75.26 meters), more than half of the remaining distance to the rim of the crater. Opportunity arrived at the rim during its next drive, on Sol 2681 (Aug. 9, 2011). Endeavour crater has been the rover team's destination for Opportunity since the rover finished exploring Victoria crater in August 2008. Endeavour offers access to older geological deposits than any Opportunity has seen before. The closest of the distant ridges visible along the Endeavour rim is informally named "Solander Point." Opportunity may investigate that area in the future. The rover's first destination on the rim, called "Spirit Point" in tribute to Opportunity's now-inactive twin, Spirit, is to the left (north) of this scene. The lighter-toned rocks closer to the rover in this view are similar to the rocks Opportunity has driven over for most of the mission. However, the darker-toned and rougher rocks just beyond that might be a different type for Opportunity to investigate. The ground in the foreground is covered with iron-rich spherules, nicknamed "blueberries," which Opportunity has observed frequently since the first days after landing. They are about 0.2 inch (5 millimeters) or more in diameter. Images combined into this view were taken through three different Pancam filters admitting light with wavelengths centered at 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). Seams have been eliminated from the sky portion of the mosaic to better simulate the vista a person standing on Mars would see. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

Opportunity's Arm and 'Gagarin' Rock, Sol 405 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its rock abrasion tool on a rock informally named "Gagarin" during the 401st and 402nd Martian days, or sols, of the rover's work on Mars (March 10 and 11, 2005). This image, taken by Opportunity's navigation camera on Sol 405 (March 14, 2005), shows the circular mark left on the rock. The circle is about 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) in diameter. At the end of the rover's arm, the tool turret is positioned with the rock abrasion tool pointing upward in this image. The abrasion target on the rock Gagarin was informally named "Yuri." A view taken by Opportunity's microscopic imager after the target was brushed by the rock abrasion tool is at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07480 . NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Gagarin' Rock Examined by Opportunity in 2005, False Color NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its rock abrasion tool on a rock informally named "Gagarin" during the 401st and 402nd Martian days, or sols, of the rover's work on Mars (March 10 and 11, 2005). This false-color image shows the circular mark created where the tool exposed the interior of the rock Gagarin at a target called "Yuri." The circle is about 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) in diameter. Gagarin is at the edge of a highly eroded, small crater that was informally named "Vostok" for the spacecraft that carried Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in the first human spaceflight, on April 12, 1961. This image combines exposures taken through three different filters by Opportunity's panoramic camera on Sol 405 (March 14, 2005). The view is presented in false color to emphasize differences among materials in the rocks and the soils. Images showing the context for the location of Vostok crater are at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07193 and http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07471. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./ASU

The Mystery of the Sparkling Spheres 2/19/04 This image, taken by the microscopic imager, an instrument located on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity 's instrument deployment device, or "arm," reveals shiny, spherical objects embedded within the trench wall at Meridiani Planum, Mars. Scientists are highly intrigued by these objects and may further investigate them. The area in this image measures approximately 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

'Blueberry' Layers Indicate Watery Origins 3/18/04 This microscopic image, taken at the outcrop region dubbed "El Capitan" near the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's landing site, reveals millimeter-scale (.04 inch-scale) layers in the lower portion. This same layering is hinted at by the fine notches that run horizontally across the sphere-like grain or "blueberry" in the center left. The thin layers do not appear to deform around the blueberry, indicating that these geologic features are concretions and not impact spherules or ejected volcanic material called lapilli. Concretions are balls of minerals that form in pre-existing wet sediments. This image was taken by the rover's microscopic imager on the 29th martian day, or sol, of its mission. The observed area is about 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS

'Berries' and Rock Share Common Origins 3/18/04 This false-color composite image, taken at a region of the rock outcrop dubbed "Shoemaker's Patio" near the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's landing site, shows finely layered sediments, which have been accentuated by erosion. The sphere-like grains or "blueberries" distributed throughout the outcrop can be seen lining up with individual layers. This observation indicates that the spherules are geologic features called concretions, which form in pre-existing wet sediments. Other sphere-like grains, such as impact spherules or volcanic lapilli (fragments of material between 2 and 64 millimeters or .08 and 2.5 inches in maximum dimension that are ejected from a volcano) are thought to be deposited with sediments and thus would form layers distinct from those of the rocks. This image was captured by the rover's panoramic camera on the 50th martian day, or sol, of the mission. Data from the camera's infrared, green and violet filters were used to create this false-color picture. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Lion King Surveys Homeland 4/1/04 This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera shows one octant of a larger panoramic image which has not yet been fully processed. The full panorama, dubbed "Lion King" was obtained on sols 58 and 60 of the mission as the rover was perched at the lip of Eagle Crater, majestically looking down into its former home. It is the largest panorama yet obtained by either rover. The octant, which faces directly into the crater, shows features as small as a few millimeters across in the field near the rover arm, to features a few meters across or larger on the horizon. The full panoramic image was taken in eight segments using six filters per segment, for a total of 558 images and more than 75 megabytes of data. This enhanced color composite was assembled from the infrared (750 nanometer), green (530 nanometer), and violet (430 nanometer) filters. Additional lower elevation tiers were added relative to other panoramas to ensure that the entire crater was covered in the mosaic.. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Bringing Out the Color in 'Bounce' 4/14/04 This false-color composite of the rock dubbed "Bounce" shows the rock after the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drilled into it with its rock abrasion tool. The drilling of the 7-millimeter-deep (0.3-inch) hole generated a bright powder. The color in this image has been enhanced to show that these tailings are relatively blue when compared with the unaltered rock (to the human eye, the tailings would appear red). This image was assembled from the infrared (750-nanometer), green (530-nanometer) and violet (430-nanometer) filters of the rover's panoramic camera. It was taken on sol 68. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Three Fresh Exposures, Stretched Color 7/1/04 This panoramic camera image from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been processed using a technique known as a decorrelation stretch to exaggerate the colors. The area in the image includes three holes created inside "Endurance Crater" by Opportunity's rock abrasion tool between sols 143 and 148 (June 18 and June 23, 2004). Because color variations are so subtle in the pictured area, stretched images are useful for discriminating color differences that can alert scientists to compositional and textural variations. For example, without the exaggeration, no color difference would be discernable among the tailings left behind after the grinding of these holes, but in this stretched image, the tailings around "London" (top) appear more red than those of the other holes ("Virginia," middle, and "Cobble Hill," bottom). Scientists believe that is because the rock abrasion tool sliced through two "blueberries," or spherules (visible on the upper left and upper right sides of the circle). When the blades break up these spherules, composed of mostly gray hematite, the result is a bright red powder. In this image, you can see the rock layers that made the team want to grind holes in each identified layer. The top layer is yellowish red, the middle is yellowish green and the lower layer is green. Another advantage to viewing this stretched image is the clear detail of the distribution of the rock abrasion tool tailings (heading down-slope) and the differences in rock texture. This image was created using the 753-, 535- and 432-nanometer filters. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

'Endurance Crater's' Dazzling Dunes (false-color) 8/6/04 As NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity creeps farther into "Endurance Crater," the dune field on the crater floor appears even more dramatic. This false-color image taken by the rover's panoramic camera shows that the dune crests have accumulated more dust than the flanks of the dunes and the flat surfaces between them. Also evident is a "blue" tint on the flat surfaces as compared to the dune flanks. This results from the presence of the hematite-containing spherules ("blueberries") that accumulate on the flat surfaces. Sinuous tendrils of sand less than 1 meter (3.3 feet) high extend from the main dune field toward the rover. Scientists hope to send the rover down to one of these tendrils in an effort to learn more about the characteristics of the dunes. Dunes are a common feature across the surface of Mars, and knowledge gleaned from investigating the Endurance dunes close-up may apply to similar dunes elsewhere. Before the rover heads down to the dunes, rover drivers must first establish whether the slippery slope that leads to them is firm enough to ensure a successful drive back out of the crater. Otherwise, such hazards might make the dune field a true sand trap. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

False-Color View of a 'Rat' Hole Trail 7/27/04 This view from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera is a false-color composite rendering of the first seven holes that the rover's rock abrasion tool dug on the inner slope of "Endurance Crater." The rover was about 12 meters (about 39 feet) down into the crater when it acquired the images combined into this mosaic. The view is looking back toward the rim of the crater, with the rover's tracks visible. The tailings around the holes drilled by the rock abrasion tool, or "Rat," show evidence for fine-grained red hematite similar to what was observed months earlier in "Eagle Crater" outcrop holes. Last week, viewers were asked to try seeing as many holes as they could from a black-and-white, navigation-camera image (PIA06716). Most viewers will find it far easier to see the seven holes in this exaggerated color image; the same is true for scientists who are studying the holes from millions of miles away. Starting from the uppermost pictured (closest to the crater rim) to the lowest, the rock abrasion tool hole targets are called "Tennessee," "Cobblehill," "Virginia," "London," "Grindstone," "Kettlestone," and "Drammensfjorden." Opportunity drilled these holes on sols 138 (June 13, 2004), 143 (June 18), 145 (June 20), 148 (June 23), 151 (June 26), 153 (June 28) and 161 (July 7), respectively. Each hole is 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) in diameter. This image was generated using the panoramic camera's 750-, 530-, and 430-nanometer filters. It was taken on sol 173 (July 19). Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

A Hole in One The interior of a crater surrounding the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity at Meridiani Planum on Mars can be seen in this color image from the rover's panoramic camera. This is the darkest landing site ever visited by a spacecraft on Mars. The rim of the crater is approximately 10 meters (32 feet) from the rover. The crater is estimated to be 20 meters (65 feet) in diameter. Scientists are intrigued by the abundance of rock outcrops dispersed throughout the crater, as well as the crater's soil, which appears to be a mixture of coarse gray grains and fine reddish grains. Data taken from the camera's near-infrared, green and blue filters were combined to create this approximate true color picture, taken on the first day of Opportunity's journey. The view is to the west-southwest of the rover. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Peering at Pesky 'Jammerbugt' (False Color) 7/21/06 This false-color image was generated from images obtained by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on sol 842 (June 7, 2006) using the panoramic camera's 750-nanometer, 530-nanomter, and 430-nanometer filters. As winter has descended over Meridiani Planum, the availability of solar power for the rovers has diminished greatly. One consequence of less power for Opportunity is that there are fewer telecommunications links via the orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft because the rover needs to use the "deep sleep" mode overnight to conserve energy. As a result, images that are not needed specifically to help plan the next sol of operations often stay onboard for much longer time than the science team has been used to. For example, on sol 833 Opportunity became embedded within an unexpectedly deep and very fine-grained ripple, named "Jammerbugt" by the operations team, and spent the next eight sols (834-841) extricating itself. A series of images from the hazard avoidance camera were quickly returned because they were needed to help plan the drive sequences. However, once the rover was free from the ripple, the science team commanded these panoramic camera image mosaics on sol 842 to show complete coverage of the wheel tracks that were left by Opportunity during the extraction process. The images are of great scientific value but were not critical for planning operations. Accordingly, they were not fully downlinked until sol 864 (June 29, 2006), about three weeks after they were obtained. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

'Wopmay'in False Color 11/4/04 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity examined a boulder called "Wopmay" before heading further east inside "Endurance Crater." The frames combined into this false-color view were taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera during the rover's 251st martian day (Oct. 7, 2004). The coloring accentuates iron-rich spherical concretions as bluish dots embedded in the rock and on the ground around it. The rock is about one meter (3 feet) across. The slope of the ground and loose surface material around the rock prevented Opportunity from getting firm enough footing to use its rock abrasion tool on Wopmay. Evidence from the rover's spectrometers and microscopic imager is consistent with a possibility that rocks near the bottom of the crater were affected by water both before and after the crater formed. The evidence is still not conclusive. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Geologist's Treasure Trove This is a portion of a high-resolution image captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera, which shows the puzzling rock outcropping that scientists eagerly wait to investigate. These layered rocks measure only 10 centimeters (4 inches) tall and are thought to be either volcanic ash deposits or sediments carried by water or wind. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell