Mars orbiter looks down on rover
The Opportunity rover was pictured at the edge of the crater
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Nasa's new orbiter at Mars has taken a spectacular picture of the Opportunity rover sitting on a crater's rim.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived at the Red Planet in March and has only recently moved into a prime position to begin science investigations.
Its view of Victoria Crater will help US space agency researchers decide where to send Opportunity to make ground observations.
Imaged from a height of 297km, the 2.3m-wide rover appears as a tiny dot.
"This is a tremendous example of how our Mars missions in orbit and on the surface are designed to reinforce each other and expand our ability to explore and discover," said Doug McCuistion, the director of Nasa's Mars exploration programme in Washington.
Opportunity has been making its way to Victoria Crater for the past 21 Earth months - about half its mission on the Red Planet.
The crater has high walls with layers of exposed rock that should reveal significant new information about the planet's geological past.
Opportunity has already found strong evidence that its region of Mars - Meridiani Planum - was covered with shallow waters many millions of years ago. The investigation of rocks at Victoria is expected to fill out the story still further.
The principal investigator on the rover programme, Steve Squyres, said Opportunity would spend a short time conducting a recce of the rim before any decision was made to go inside the crater.
"The combination of the ground-level and aerial view is much more powerful than either alone," said Professor Squyres, who is based at Cornell University. "If you were a geologist driving up to the edge of a crater in your jeep, the first thing you would do would be to pick up the aerial photo you brought with you and use it to understand what you're seeing from ground level. That's exactly what we're doing here." Scientists want to know if the slopes leading into the crater are firm enough to allow Opportunity to drive out.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5413754.stm
The Opportunity rover was pictured at the edge of the crater
Nasa's new orbiter at Mars has taken a spectacular picture of the Opportunity rover sitting on a crater's rim.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived at the Red Planet in March and has only recently moved into a prime position to begin science investigations.
Its view of Victoria Crater will help US space agency researchers decide where to send Opportunity to make ground observations.
Imaged from a height of 297km, the 2.3m-wide rover appears as a tiny dot.
"This is a tremendous example of how our Mars missions in orbit and on the surface are designed to reinforce each other and expand our ability to explore and discover," said Doug McCuistion, the director of Nasa's Mars exploration programme in Washington.
Opportunity has been making its way to Victoria Crater for the past 21 Earth months - about half its mission on the Red Planet.
The crater has high walls with layers of exposed rock that should reveal significant new information about the planet's geological past.
Opportunity has already found strong evidence that its region of Mars - Meridiani Planum - was covered with shallow waters many millions of years ago. The investigation of rocks at Victoria is expected to fill out the story still further.
The principal investigator on the rover programme, Steve Squyres, said Opportunity would spend a short time conducting a recce of the rim before any decision was made to go inside the crater.
"The combination of the ground-level and aerial view is much more powerful than either alone," said Professor Squyres, who is based at Cornell University. "If you were a geologist driving up to the edge of a crater in your jeep, the first thing you would do would be to pick up the aerial photo you brought with you and use it to understand what you're seeing from ground level. That's exactly what we're doing here." Scientists want to know if the slopes leading into the crater are firm enough to allow Opportunity to drive out.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5413754.stm
