The Road to Victoria Crater on Mars
Explanation:
Here is a
road never traveled.
To get to
Victoria Crater on
Mars, the rolling robotic rover
Opportunity must traverse the landscape
shown above.
Victoria Crater lies about one
kilometer ahead.
The intervening terrain shows a series of
light rock outcrops that appears like some sort of
cobblestone road.
Surrounding this naturally-occurring Martian road, is Martian
sand ripples that must be
navigated around.
Inspection of the outcrop road shows it to be sprinkled with many
small round rocks dubbed
blueberries.
Opportunity and its sister robot Spirit
continue
their third year exploring Mars.
Within the next month, planetary scientists hope to maneuver
Opportunity across
Meridiani Planum
to get a good view of 800-meter diameter Victoria Crater.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
