Figure 1
Figure 2
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity edged 3.7 meters (12 feet) closer to the top
of the "Duck Bay" alcove along the rim of "Victoria Crater" during the
rover's 952nd Martian day, or sol (overnight Sept. 27 to Sept. 28), and
gained this vista of the crater. The rover's navigation camera took the
seven exposures combined into this mosaic view of the crater's interior.
This crater has been the mission's long-term destination for the past 21
Earth months.
The far side of the crater is about 800 meters (one-half mile) away. The
rim of the crater is composed of alternating promontories, rocky points
towering approximately 70 meters (230 feet) above the crater floor, and
recessed alcoves, such as Duck Bay. The bottom of the crater is covered
by sand that has been shaped into ripples by the Martian wind. The rocky
cliffs in the foreground have been informally named "Cape Verde," on the
left, and "Cabo Frio," on the right.
Victoria Crater is about five times wider than "Endurance Crater," which
Opportunity spent six months examining in 2004, and about 40 times wider
than "Eagle Crater," where Opportunity first landed. The great lure of
Victoria is an expectation that the thick stack of geological layers
exposed in the crater walls could reveal the record of past environmental
conditions over a much greater span of time than Opportunity has read from
rocks examined earlier in the mission.
The stereo-anaglyph view presented here is a cylindrical projection with
geometric seam correction.
