Opportunity's Improbable Anniversary   
       
   July 1, 2013:  When NASA's Mars rover Opportunity blasted off from Cape   
   Canaveral in 2003, many onlookers expected a relatively short mission. Landing   
   on Mars is risky business. The Red Planet has a long history of destroying   
   spacecraft that attempt to visit it.  Even if Opportunity did land safely, it   
   was only designed for a 3-month mission on the hostile Martian surface.   
       
   Few, if any, imagined that Opportunity would still be roving the red sands of   
   Mars--and still making discoveries--ten years later.   
       
   On July 7, 2013, Opportunity celebrates the 10th anniversary of its launch and   
   more than 9 years on Mars.   
       
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz0QZ6jwFN8   
       
   A new ScienceCast video celebrates the improbable 10th anniversary of Mars   
   rover Opportunity. Play it   
       
   Opportunity is celebrating by driving.  The rover is currently en route to   
   "Solander Point," a place on the rim of Endurance Crater where a   
   treasure-trove of geological layers is exposed for investigation.   
       
   After nine-plus years of traveling, Opportunity recently set the US space   
   program's all-time record for mileage on another planet.  The milestone   
   occurred on May 15, 2013, when the rover drove 80 meters, bringing its total   
   odometry 35.760 kilometers or 22.220 miles.   
       
   The previous mark had been held by the Apollo 17 moon rover, which astronauts   
   Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt drove for 35.74 km (22.21 miles) across the   
   lunar surface in December 1972.   
       
   Over the years, Opportunity's travels have been punctuated by hundreds of   
   stops to photograph and sample the Martian landscape.  The surface of Mars of   
   today is bone dry and hostile to life as we know it.  Opportunity's mission is   
   to hunt for places where it wasn't always so, places where ancient water might   
   have nourished life forms native to Mars.   
       
   So far so good; the rover has found abundant evidence that liquid water was   
   once present.  For the past 20 months, Opportunity has been "working" the rim   
   of Endeavour Crater. There, Opportunity found deposits of gypsum probably   
   formed from groundwater seeping up through cracks in Martian soil. Also,   
   Opportunity has also found signs of clay minerals in a rock named "Esperance".   
       
   http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-opportunity/opportunity-sol3348.htm   
       
   OR   
       
   http://tinyurl.com/mw9v6nl   
       
   A map of Opportunity's planned traverse from Cape York to Solander Point.   
   Larger image"A lot of water moved through this rock," says Steve Squyres of   
   Cornell University, principal investigator for the mission. "These results are   
   some of the most important findings of our entire mission."   
       
   Solander Point, where Opportunity is heading now, has two key attractions:   
       
   For one thing, while Opportunity's most recent stop, Cape York, exposed just a   
   few meters of geological layering, Solander Point exposes roughly 10 times as   
   much. A visit to Solander Point will be like reading a Martian history book.   
       
   Second, and perhaps more importantly, there are north-facing slopes at   
   Solander Point where the rover can tilt its solar panels toward the sun and   
   ride out the coming winter. The minimum-sunshine days of this sixth Martian   
   winter for Opportunity will come in February 2014.   
       
   If Opportunity survives another year--and who now would bet against it?--the   
   rover might yet break the all-time extraterrestrial driving record set by   
   Lunokhod 2, a Soviet robotic vehicle that traveled an estimated 26 miles (42   
   km) across the Moon in 1973.   
       
   After that lies the 26.2 mile mark.  In other words, stay tuned for the first   
   Martian Marathon.   
       
   To follow Opportunity and other rovers on Mars, please visit htt   
   ://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/   
       
   Credits:   
       
   Author:Dr. Tony Phillips| Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit:   
   Science@NASA   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.94   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)