News NASA Mars Rover Arrived at "Perseverance Valley"

[Nicholas Kang]

NASA: Mars Rover Opportunity Begins Study of Valley's Origin

"Perseverance Valley" lies just on the other side of the dip in the crater rim visible in this view from the Navigation Camera (Navcam) on Opportunity, which arrived at this destination in early May 2017 in preparation for driving down the valley. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the main destination of its current two-year extended mission -- an ancient fluid-carved valley incised on the inner slope of a vast crater's rim.

As the rover approached the upper end of "Perseverance Valley" in early May, images from its cameras began showing parts of the area in greater resolution than what can be seen in images taken from orbit above Mars.

This graphic shows the route that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove in its final approach to "Perseverance Valley" on the western rim of Endeavour Crater during spring 2017. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/NMMNH

The process that carved Perseverance Valley into the rim of Endeavour Crater billions of years ago has not yet been identified. Among the possibilities: It might have been flowing water, or might have been a debris flow in which a small amount of water lubricated a turbulent mix of mud and boulders, or might have been an even drier process, such as wind erosion.The mission's main objective with Opportunity at this site is to assess which possibility is best supported by the evidence still in place.

The upper end of the valley is at a broad notch in the crest of the crater rim. The rover team's plan for investigating the area begins with taking sets of images of the valley from two widely separated points at that dip in the rim. This long-baseline stereo imaging will provide information for extraordinarily detailed three-dimensional analysis of the terrain. The valley extends down from the rim's crest line into the crater, at a slope of about 15 to 17 degrees for a distance of about two football fields.

The "Cape Tribulation" segment of Endeavour Crater's rim is visible in this picture with view from the rover's Panoramic Camera (Pancam). The rover looked back northward during its trek south to "Perseverance Valley." Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.

 

[jedidia]

Damn, that fellow just keeps on going...

 

[Ravenous]

...I have occasionally wondered what the chances are that it'll be transmitting for longer than Curiosity. (Dunno how long Curiosity's RTG power source will last.)

Impressive for a machine designed for a 90 day life...

 

[Andy44]

It never ceases to amaze me how much the surface of Mars looks like someplace in Utah.

And seeing those rover tracks in the soil is moving. Here's hoping the machine gathers the data they are looking for.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Dang. Fourteen years and STILL going strong.

I know that things these days aren't made very well (by design), but JPL just keeps bucking that trend.

to Opportunity.

 

[Admiral_Ritt]

Modestly upgrading this rover class, and putting into a
semi assembly line, would have produced, three maybe four of this class of rover for the cost of the one Curiosity mission.

They could have risked more interesting landing sites with
some of them. A worthwhile gamble.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

But, some of the experiments aboard Curiosity require significantly more power than the MER-class rover could hope to provide.

 

[Andy44]

Dang. Fourteen years and STILL going strong.

I know that things these days aren't made very well (by design), but JPL just keeps bucking that trend.

to Opportunity.

Boeing, actually, according to Wikipedia...hard to nail down the exact contractual responsibilities without a more detailed search.

But, some of the experiments aboard Curiosity require significantly more power than the MER-class rover could hope to provide.

True. And RTGs keep getting more expensive as the proper plutonium keeps getting more scarce. Whodda thunk nuclear weapons production would have a constructive by-product?