NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity celebrates its 11th anniversary on the planet, marking the milestone with an incredible view of 22-km-wide Endeavour Crater.
This panorama is presented in approximate true color by combing exposures taken through three of the Opportunity’s Pancam color filters, centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The left edge is toward west-northwest and the right edge is southward. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell University /Arizona State University.
Opportunity has driven 41.7 km since it landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on January 25, 2004. That is farther than any other off-Earth surface vehicle has driven.
The rover has been exploring the western rim of Endeavour Crater since 2011.
The new panoramic view is from the top of Cape Tribulation, a raised section of the rim of the crater. The component images were taken with Opportunity’s Pancam during the week after the rover’s arrival at the summit on January 6, 2015.
This location is the highest elevation the vehicle has reached since departing the Victoria Crater area in 2008 on a 3-year, down-slope journey to Endeavour.
Endeavour spans about 22 km in diameter, with its interior and rim laid out in this 245-degree panorama centered toward east-northeast.
Rover tracks imprinted during the rover’s approach to the site appear on the left.
The far horizon in the right half of the scene includes portions of the rim of a crater farther south, Iazu Crater.
At the summit, Opportunity held its robotic arm so that the U.S. flag would be visible in the scene.
The flag is printed on the aluminum cable guard of the rover’s rock abrasion tool, which is used for grinding away weathered rock surfaces to expose fresh interior material for examination.
It is intended as a memorial to victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
The aluminum was recovered from the site of the Twin Towers in the weeks following the attacks. Workers at Honeybee Robotics in lower Manhattan, less than a mile from World Trade Center, were making the rock abrasion tool for Opportunity and Spirit in September 2001.
Opportunity departed Cape Tribulation on January 17, 2015, continuing toward a science destination at Marathon Valley.
