Opportunity at Work

Landing Site
Operations Summary
Detailed Topics

Landing Site

Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum plains, at 1.95°S, 354.47°E. This site had been chosen due to Meridiani Planum being a grey hematite-rich place on Mars. Hematite is an iron oxyde which forms in a watery environment. Hematite is found too in two other regions (Valles Marineris, large Mars canyon, and at a place named Aram Chaos). Meridiani Planum was chosen however due to two other sites not offering a safe airbag landing. On another hand, Meridiani Planum is an eroded region where formerly buried craters are providing an insight into Martian layers and past. The landing site is located in thewesternmost part of Sinus Meridiani, a Martian famous feature. Contrarily to its twin, Opportunity exited easily from its landing platform

landing ellipses, site general map (left); landing site azimuths (right). pictures courtesy NASA/JPL/MSSS/ASU and NASA/JPL/MSSS/ASU respectively

Opportunity landing site was renamed "Challenger Memorial Station" in honor to the crew of the Shuttle Challenger which exploded in the launch phase of its flight, January, 28th 1986. Opportunity by an extraordinary luck came to a standstill in a small 72 ft wide, 10 ft deep (22 m, 3 m) crater. The latter was characterized by a neatly uniform soil and a rock layers outcrop. About rovers entry, descent and landing scheme, see this table

pictures (from left to right): Opportunity's backshell and parachute, Opportunity on its landing platform as seen from atop, landing site's color panoramic view. pictures courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell, NASA/JPL, NASA/JPL/Cornell respectively

Operations Summary

Extensive Water at Meridiani Planum (Feb. 3-Mar. 21, 2004) Opportunity landed by chance inside a shallow crater which provided an outcrop of sedimentary layers. Such layers brought the evidence that a vast body of acidic water had existed at Meridiani Planum picture based on pictures courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell

More Evidence for Water (Mar. 21-May 1, 2005) Once outside its landing crater, Opportunity, although some discrepancies, found mostly further evidence Meridiani Planum to have been covered long ago by a body of salty water. picture NASA/JPL

A Fine View of a Large Martian crater (May 1-Jun. 12, 2005) Endurance Crater is a 430 ft (130 m) wide, 66 ft deep (20 m) crater with thick rocks layers as tall as 16-33 ft (6-10 m), some arranged into cliffs. picture NASA/JPL/Cornell

More Evidence Still for Extensive Water (Jun. 12-Dec. 13, 2005) Opportunity was sent inside Endurance Crater and down to the crater's bottom, all layers were found water-related as that water occurred off and on giving a hard time to possible microbial life! picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based on a picture NASA/JPL

Trapped on a Sand Dune Far Away from Home! (Apr.-May 2005) As it was descending further South for more science, Opportunity got trapped atop a sand dune. Engineers needed 5 weeks to get it out of there! picture NASA/JPL

The Vastness of Meridiani Planum Plains Along its way to a southernmost position, Opportunity is rolling over the vastnesses of the Meridiani Planum plains. picture NASA/JPL

Studying a Vast Crater (Sep. 2006-Aug. 2008) As it arrived there in September 2006, Opportunity is now working about the half-a-mile (800-meters) wide Victoria crater. The crater is located in the Meridiani Planum plains, certainly allowing to deeper layers of the Martian surface. Opportunity descended into the crater to work there, in September 2007 picture NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

On the Way to Endeavour Crater (Aug. 2008-Aug. 2011) Here is a view of the area where Opportunity has been working since it landed at Mars and the position of the rover by April 2010. The view, in the Meridiani Planum region, is 90-mile (140-km) wide as it was composed through a mosaic of daytime infrared images taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. The 13.7-mile (22-kilometer) wide, clay-featuring Endeavour Crater, is the next target for Opportunity. By July 2010, Opportunity saw its first Martian dust devil! Tracks left by those have been seen in Meridiani Planum as visible dust devils would be more rare to observe as there might be no loose dust to disturb at the difference of Gusev Crater, where the terrain is rougher and dustier in texture. picture NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University

Fifth Wintering at Mars (December 2011-May 2012) NASA chose a site informally named 'Greeley Haven', on the 'Cape York' segment of Endeavour Crater's rim, like the place where Opportunity spent its fifth Martian winter. The site is a outcrop that provides a Sun-facing slope helpful for adequate solar power as it also provides targets of scientific interest. As working near Mars' equator, Opportunity did not need Sun-facing slopes until now to hibernate but its solar panels came to carry a thicker coating of dust than in the previous winters. Southern Mars winter solstice occurred on March 30, 2012. Watery conditions at Endeavour Crater at the origin of terrain of interest possess less acidity than the ancient, wet environments recorded at sites Opportunity visited during its first seven years on Mars. picture NASA

Keeping at Endeavour Crater and Distance Record (May 2012-Mar. 2015) As Opportunity is still performing science on the ridge of the Endeavour Crater, it acquired the off-Earth roving distance record by mid-2014 after accruing 25 miles (40 kilometers) of driving. The previous record was held by the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 rover. Opportunity has driven farther than any other wheeled vehicle on another world as it was intended to drive about 3,000 feet only and was never designed for distance. After finding signs of acidic water further, Opportunity eventually found the first signs of past water good to life! A new type of spherules have been seen by Curiosity near Endeavour crater by 2012, which do not have the iron-rich composition of blueberries as they also differ in concentration, distribution and structure as a spectral signature of aluminum bound to oxygen and hydrogen was also found picture NASA

Keeping at Endeavour Crater and Termination (Mar. 2015-Feb. 2019) After that Opportunity explored the 'Marathon Valley" of Endeavour's western rim, documenting the geological context of water-related minerals that had been mapped there from orbital observations. Slopes were adressed at as steep as 30 degrees, the steepest driven by Opportunity since its first year at Mars. Thence the rover began experiencing troubles with a motor in the right-front wheel as, since March 2015, it 'flash' memory which kept data overnight, had to be discontinued and data transmitted each day, or lost. By April 2017, the rover departed 'Cape Tribulation,' a crater-rim segment it has explored since late 2014, southbound for its next destination, 'Perseverance Valley' a area where a type of fluid activity carved it billions of years ago, water, wind, or flowing debris lubricated by water. NASA officially terminated Opportunity, the last of both Twin Rovers still operating on February 14th, 2019 as the Martian summer, last Earth's summer by 2018's dust storms had crippled it. NASA failed to communicate back with the rover during a 8-month series of multifaceted attempts. The Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made their last attempt to revive Opportunity on Feb. 12, 2019, to no avail

Detailed Topics

Topics below are detailing some aspects of Martian features as seen by the rovers. Those sections are common to both Opportunity and Spirit

Water at Mars? - Mars Atmosphere - Wind Work at Mars - Eclipses at Mars - Computing Use Innovation With the Twin Rovers - Rovers' Management During a Mars Conjunction