Mars Rover Reaches an Ancient Crater.

3 years of trundling through the treacherous dunes brought the NASA rover Opportunity to its target more importantly - a huge crater called Endeavour was once soaked with water and could give clues to whether life once existed on Mars.

Orbital observations indicate the rocks at the edge of Endeavour are more than 3.5 million years and date from the first phase rainiest in the history of Mars, where water carved channels draining large throughout the planet. So far, neither opportunity nor the now-defunct sister Spirit (see "Vehicles at a glance") considered the rocks that clearly date from this period.

"This is potentially the most exciting scientific opportunity of the rover mission yet," said John Callas, director of mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. That's because the orbit mineralogical studies suggest that these ancient rocks formed in an environment hospitable to life.

The rovers have studied the rocks that once immersed in acidic water, salt (see "Blueberry bonanza"). Endeavour 20 kilometers, in contrast, seems to have harbored water friendly to life, because the crater contains clay minerals that require a relatively neutral pH to form. What's more, the orbital measurements do not indicate that the water was salty old - even salt water may be flowing on Mars (see "Water Flow").

Opportunity's arrival at Endeavour marks a major milestone for the mission. The goal seems "incredibly courageous" when it began to go there, says James Wray of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

The robot was designed only to last three months in 2008, when he left a small crater called Victoria, who had been on Mars more than four years (see the route here). "I won a wife, lost a grandfather and moved twice [since then]," says Wray. "From that perspective, it feels like a lot of time has passed."

The robot could reveal how the water in the Endeavour carried. If the rock is inscribed with the waves, which suggests that standing water on the surface, while if the points thread rocks with streaks of clay minerals, which aim to seepage of groundwater, says Wray.

Opportunity to enter Victoria Crater, but it is likely to spend all their time on the Endeavour on the edge. Interior Endeavour is less attractive due to sediment from a later period, the drier the history of Mars has buried the older rocks there.

If you are still working a few years from now, the rover could set off another, smaller crater called Iazu with rocks that are so old. "But smolyan saint, which is about 15 miles away," as far as the walk of three years for Endeavour, said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. 

He is content to see the opportunity to live the rest of their days examining the rocks and catch amazing views at the edge of Endeavour. "That's a spectacular way to end the mission," he says.




See "Anatomy Mars Rover " 

Posted in: Mystery,Science