During four months prior to the fourth anniversary of its landing on Mars,
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity examined rocks inside an alcove
called "Duck Bay" in the western portion of Victoria Crater. The main body
of the crater appears in the upper right of this stereo panorama, with the
far side of the crater lying about 800 meters (half a mile) away.
Bracketing that part of the view are two promontories on the crater's rim
at either side of Duck Bay. They are "Cape Verde," about 6 meters (20 feet)
tall, on the left, and "Cabo Frio," about 15 meters (50 feet) tall, on the
right. The rest of the image, other than sky and portions of the rover, is
ground within Duck Bay.
Opportunity's targets of study during the last quarter of 2007 were rock
layers within a band exposed around the interior of the crater, about 6
meters (20 feet) from the rim. Bright rocks within the band are visible in
the foreground of the panorama. The rover science team assigned informal
names to three subdivisions of the band: "Steno," "Smith," and "Lyell."
This view incorporates many images taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera
(Pancam) from the 1,332nd through 1,379th Martian days, or sols, of the
mission (Oct. 23 to Dec. 11, 2007). It combines a stereo pair so that it
appears three-dimensional when seen through blue-red glasses. Some visible
patterns in dark and light tones are the result of combining frames that
were affected by dust on the front sapphire window of the rover's camera.
Opportunity landed on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time, (Jan. 24, Pacific
Time) inside a much smaller crater about 6 kilometers (4 miles) north of
Victoria Crater, to begin a surface mission designed to last 3 months and
drive about 600 meters (0.4 mile).
