This animation shows a simulated rover descending into Victoria Crater via the rock-paved slopes of an alcove informally named "Duck Bay." NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is expected to make a drive in early July 2007, on its way to examine older rocks deeper in the crater that might hold clues to Mars' wet past. The rover travels slowly and will make the trip in short segments, rather than in one long drive. Duck Bay has slopes of about 15 to 20 degrees and exposed bedrock, making it the safest site for Opportunity to enter the crater. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/CornellWashington, June 29 (ANI): NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover is scheduled to begin a descent down a rock paved slope in the Red Planet’s massive Victoria Crater.
Opportunity has already been exploring layered rocks in cliffs around Victoria Crater, but this latest trek carries real risk for the long-lived robotic explorer. There are fears that Opportunity could become trapped inside the crater if it loses some of its capabilities.
As such, NASA and the Mars Rover science team has planned the descent carefully to enable an eventual exit.
"While we take seriously the uncertainty about whether Opportunity will climb back out, the potential value of investigations that appear possible inside the crater convinced me to authorize the team to move forward into Victoria Crater," said Alan Stern, NASA associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington.
"It is a calculated risk worth taking, particularly because this mission has far exceeded its original goals," he said.
Opportunity will enter Victoria Crater through an alcove named Duck Bay. The eroding crater has a scalloped rim of cliff-like promontories, or capes, alternating with more gently sloped alcoves, or bays.
“It has slopes of 15 to 20 degrees and exposed bedrock for safe driving,” said John Callas, rover project manager, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
The descent will allow examination and investigation of the compositions and textures of exposed materials in the crater's depths for clues about ancient, wet environments.
According to the research team, as the rover travels farther down the slope, it will be able to examine increasingly older rocks in the exposed walls of the crater.
A meteor impact millions of years ago excavated Victoria, which lies approximately four miles south of where Opportunity landed in January 2004.
The impact-created bowl is half a mile across and about five times as wide as Endurance Crater, where Opportunity spent more than six months exploring in 2004.
Incidentally, Opportunity has operated more than 12 times longer than its originally intended 90 days.
The rover began the journey to Victoria crater from Endurance 30 months ago. It reached the rim at Duck Bay nine months ago.
It then drove approximately a quarter of the way clockwise around the rim, examining rock layers visible in the promontories and possible entry routes in the alcoves.
Now, it has returned to the most favorable entry point, Duck Bay, and if all of its six wheels continue working, engineers expect it to be able to climb back out of the crater.
However, Opportunity's twin rover Spirit lost the use of one wheel more than a year ago, diminishing its climbing ability.
"These rovers are well past their design lifetimes, and another wheel could fail on either rover at any time. If Opportunity were to lose the use of a wheel inside Victoria Crater, it would make it very difficult, perhaps impossible, to climb back out,” said Callas.
"We don't want this to be a one-way trip. We still have some excellent science targets out on the plains that we would like to visit after Victoria. But if Opportunity becomes trapped there, it will be worth the knowledge gained,” said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. (ANI)