The Briefing Room

General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: flowers on January 21, 2014, 10:56:38 pm

Title: Opportunity Rover Starts 2nd Decade by Spectacular Mountain Summit and Mineral Goldmine
Post by: flowers on January 21, 2014, 10:56:38 pm

http://www.universetoday.com/107684/opportunity-rover-starts-2nd-decade-by-spectacular-mountain-summit-and-mineral-goldmine/#ixzz2qsJb2lvq

(http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Opportunity-at-Solander-Sol-3512_1b_Ken-Kremer-580x178.jpg)

Quote

NASA’s long-lived Opportunity Mars rover has accomplished what absolutely no one expected.

Opportunity is about to embark on her 2nd decade exploring the Red Planet since her nail biting touchdown in 2004.

And to top that off she is marking that miraculous milestone at a spectacular outlook by the summit of the first mountain she has ever scaled!

See our Solander Point summit mosaic showing the robots current panoramic view – in essence this is what her eyes see today; above and below.

And that mountaintop is riven with outcrops of minerals that likely formed in flowing liquid neutral water conducive to life – potentially a scientific goldmine.

“We expect we will reach some of the oldest rocks we have seen with this rover — a glimpse back into the ancient past of Mars,” says the rover principal investigator, Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

“It’s like starting a whole new mission.”

Title: Re: Opportunity Rover Starts 2nd Decade by Spectacular Mountain Summit and Mineral Goldmine
Post by: Relic on January 22, 2014, 12:56:19 am

It would be good if the Chinese keep up this kind of exploration, now that we are closing down.