PIA11837: Endeavour Crater in Context


Endeavour Crater in Context

Caption:

Annotated image of Endeavour Crater in Context
Figure 1
Click on the image for larger version

The largest crater in this mosaic of images taken by the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is Endeavour Crater, which is 22 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter.

The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars chose to drive the rover toward Endeavour after Opportunity ascended out of smaller Victoria Crater in August 2008.

Opportunity caught its first glimpse of Endeavour's rim on March 7, 2009, during the 1,820th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars. The rover was about 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the closest point of the crater.

Annotations on Figure 1 show vectors from Opportunity's position on that date toward the portions of the rim seen in images that Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) took from the Sol 1820 location. In addition to three portions of Endeavour's rim, the rim of a smaller, more distant crater, Iazu, appears faintly on the horizon in the Pancam images.

Background Info:

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, provided and operates the Context Camera.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
Instrument Host Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Opportunity (MER-B)
Host Type Orbiter Rover
Instrument Context Camera (CTX)
Detector
Extra Keywords Crater, Grayscale
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2009-03-18
Date in Caption 2009-03-07
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11837
Identifier PIA11837