PIA06865: 'Endurance Crater' Overview


‘Endurance Crater’ Overview

Caption:

This overview of "Endurance Crater" traces the path of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity from sol 94 (April 29, 2004) to sol 205 (August 21, 2004). The route charted to enter the crater was a bit circuitous, but well worth the extra care engineers took to ensure the rover's safety. On sol 94, Opportunity sat on the edge of this impressive, football field-sized crater while rover team members assessed the scene. After traversing around the "Karatepe" region and past "Burns Cliff," the rover engineering team assessed the possibility of entering the crater. Careful analysis of the angles Opportunity would face, including testing an Earth-bound model on simulated martian terrain, led the team to decide against entering the crater at that particular place. Opportunity then backed up before finally dipping into the crater on its 130th sol (June 5, 2004). The rover has since made its way down the crater's inner slope, grinding, trenching and examining fascinating rocks and soil targets along the way. The rover nearly made it to the intriguing dunes at the bottom of the crater, but when it got close, the terrain did not look safe enough to cross.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
Instrument Host Mars Global Surveyor Opportunity (MER-B)
Host Type Orbiter Rover
Instrument Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) Panorama Camera
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Crater, Dune
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2004-09-11
Date in Caption 2004-04-29 2004-06-05, 2004-08-21
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Cornell/OSU/MSSS
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06865
Identifier PIA06865