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Duck Bay, Victoria Crater, Planet Mars

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  • by Staff Writers
    Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 01, 2007
    Image taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity reveal a stunning view of Victoria Crater below the deck at Duck Bay. Opportunity reached Victoria Crater on Sol 951 (September 27, 2006) after traversing 9.28 kilometers (5.77 miles) since her landing site at Eagle Crater. Victoria Crater is roughly 800 meters (one-half mile) wide -- about five times wider than Endurance Crater, and 40 times as wide as Eagle crater.

    The south face of the 6 meter (20 foot) tall layered Cape Verde promontory can be seen in the left side of the inner crater wall, about 50 meters (about 165 feet) away from the rover at the time of the imaging. The north face of the 15 meter (50 foot) tall stack of layered rocks called Cabo Frio can be seen on the right side of the inner crater wall.

    This mosaic was taken on Sols 952 and 953 (September 28 and 29, 2006). There are 30 separate pointings through 6 different filters at each pointing.

    This mosaic was generated from Pancam's 753 nm, 535 nm, and 482 nm filters. Four versions are available at full resolution: this approximate true color rendering, a false color stretch to enhance subtle color differences in the scene, a stereo anaglyph, which appears three dimensional when viewed through red-blue glasses, and a black and white version presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction.

    Opportunity's First Dip into Victoria Crater Goes Well
    NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity entered Victoria Crater during the rover's 1,291st Martian day, or sol, (Sept. 11, 2007). The rover team commanded Opportunity to drive just far enough into the crater to get all six wheels onto the inner slope, and then to back out again and assess how much the wheels slipped on the slope.

    The driving commands for the day included a precaution for the rover to stop driving if the wheels were slipping more than 40 percent.

    Slippage exceeded that amount on the last step of the drive, so Opportunity stopped with its front pair of wheels still inside the crater. The rover team planned to assess results of the drive, then start Opportunity on an extended exploration inside the crater.

    This wide-angle view taken by Opportunity's front hazard-identification camera at the end of the day's driving shows the wheel tracks created by the short dip into the crater.

    The left half of the image looks across an alcove informally named "Duck Bay" toward a promontory called "Cape Verde" clockwise around the crater wall. The right half of the image looks across the main body of the crater, which is 800 meters (half a mile) in diameter.

    Related Links
    Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
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    Spirit Arrives At Stratigraphic Wonderland In Columbia Hills On Mars
    Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 28, 2007
    Spirit completed the rover's longest 5-wheel drive to date en route to a platy rock surface nicknamed "Texas Chili" in an area scientists are calling a "stratigraphic wonderland." The platy outcrop is at site 3 on top of "Home Plate" and is the focus of in-depth scientific investigation. Two sols after not receiving a scheduled data transmission, Spirit drove 19.21 meters (63.02 feet) to the rover's current location about 15 meters (49 feet) away from a field of boulders.







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