Mars Exploration Rover - Opportunity
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Mars Exploration Rover
An artist's concept portrays a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University
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First Image from a Mars Rover Choosing a Target, False Color
This image is the result of the first observation of a target selected autonomously by NASA's Opportunity using newly developed and uploaded software called AEGIS. The false color makes some differences between materials easier to see.
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Examining 'Marquette Island'
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used the wire brush of its rock abrasion tool to scour dust from a circular target area on a rock called 'Marquette Island.'
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Crater Rim Path, Sol 1,215
The route followed by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during its exploration partway around the rim of Victoria Crater is marked on this map.
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Opportunity Takes a Last Look at Rock Exposure Before Heading to 'Victoria Crater' (False Color)
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recently stopped to analyze an exposure of rock near "Beagle Crater," on a target nicknamed "Baltra." Nearly 100 sols, or Martian days, had passed since Opportunity had last analyzed one of the now-familiar rock exposures seen on the Plains of Meridiani.
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A Moment Frozen in Time
On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera (Pancam) mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th martian day.
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'Homestake' Vein, False Color
This false-color view of a mineral vein called 'Homestake' comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The vein is about the width of a thumb and about 18 inches (45 centimeters) long.
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East Rim of Endeavour Crater in Opportunity's View, Sol 2407
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera to record this eastward horizon view. A portion of Endeavour Crater's eastern rim, in the distance, is visible over the Meridiani plain.
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Approaching Endeavour Crater, Sol 2,680
This image from the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the view ahead on the day before the rover reached the rim of Endeavour crater. It was taken during the 2,680th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars.
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Opportunity's Eighth Anniversary View From 'Greeley Haven' (False Color)
This false-color mosaic of images shows the windswept vista northward (left) to northeastward (right) from the location where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending its fifth Martian winter, an outcrop informally named 'Greeley Haven.'
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Mission Summary
Opportunity was the second of the two rovers launched in 2003 to land on Mars and begin traversing the Red Planet in search of signs of past life. The rover is still actively exploring the Martian terrain, having far outlasted her planned 90-day mission.
Since landing on Mars in 2004, Opportunity has made a number of discoveries about the Red Planet including dramatic evidence that long ago at least one area of Mars stayed wet for an extended period and that conditions could have been suitable for sustaining microbial life.
› Learn more about Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit
Scientific Instrument(s)
- Panoramic camera (Pancam)
- Microscopic Imager (MI)
- Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES)
- Mossbauer Spectrometer (MB)
- Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS)
- Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT)
- Magnet arrays
- Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams)
- Navigation Cameras (Navcams)
