Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On January 30, 2011 @ 11:51 am In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
Visit the NASA/JPL website to view more Astronomy Pictures of the Day [1]
Astronomy Photo of the Day
[2]
Opportunity at Santa Maria Crater
Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission [3], NASA [4], JPL [5], Cornell [6]; Image Processing: Marco Di Lorenzo, Kenneth Kremer [7]
Explanation: Celebrating 7 years [8] on the surface of the Red Planet [9], Mars exploration rover Opportunity now stands near the rim of 90 meter wide Santa Maria crater [10]. Remarkably, Opportunity and its fellow rover Spirit [11] were initially intended [12] for a 3 month long primary mission. Still exploring, the golf cart-sized robot and shadow (far right) appear in the foreground of this panoramic view of its current location [13]. The mosaic was constructed using images from the rover’s navigation camera. On its 7 year anniversary [14], Opportunity can boast traversing [15] a total of 26.7 kilometers along the martian surface [16]. After investigating Santa Maria crater, controllers plan to have Opportunity resume a long-term trek toward Endurance crater, a large, 22 kilometer diameter crater about 6 kilometers from Santa Maria. During coming days, communication with the rover will be more difficult as Mars moves close to alignment with the Sun as seen from planet Earth’s perspective [17].
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URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/01/30/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-4/
URLs in this post:
[1] Astronomy Pictures of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
[2] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/OpportunitySol2476_Kremer-2019.jpg
[3] Mars Exploration Rover Mission: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
[4] NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/
[5] JPL: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
[6] Cornell: http://athena.cornell.edu/
[7] Kenneth Kremer: http://www.rittenhouseastronomicalsociety.org/Dr.Kremer/K.htm
[8] Celebrating 7 years: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20110120.html
[9] the Red Planet: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mars
[10] Santa Maria crater: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13794
[11] rover Spirit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/spirit-update.html
[12] intended: http://xkcd.com/695/
[13] current location: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/releases/oppy-santa-maria.php
[14] 7 year anniversary: http://www.universetoday.com/82784/7-years-of-opportunity-on-mars-and-a-science-bonanza/
[15] traversing: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/traverse_maps.html
[16] along the martian surface: http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/welcome
[17] perspective: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/images.cfm?id=2673
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