NASA'S Mars Rovers Head for New Sites After Studying Layers of Terrain

While the Mar rover Spirit has settled in for the winter, the rover Opportunity has begun its own drive towards a very unique study area in the hope of examining sediment layers for evidence of ancient surface water. It is currently doing so by travelling towards the giant Victoria Crater. So far, each rover has operated eight time longer than the three months originally planned for the mission and has driven about 7 kilometers, about 11 as far as originally planned. So far, the two rovers have combined for more than 150,000 different photographs. So far, the rovers have already confirmed that one Mars location was once wet enough to possibly support life. Opportunity had spent its last several months at the Erebus Crater, a highly eroded crater some 300 meters in diameter. It then began the 2 kilometer long journey to the Victoria Carter, approximately 800 meters in diameter. In the past 4 weeks, the Mars rover Opportunity has driven over one fourth of the total distance it needs to travel to reach to Victoria Crater.

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