Shortly after Labor Day 2011, the Mars rover Opportunity was poised on the rim of the 22,000 meter-wide Endeavour Crater, preparing to sample a novel rock type. Much older than the sedimentary samples the rover's "tasted" so far, this new sample is flush with the promise of revealing clues to the planet's environment when running rivers coursed the surface.
What was supposed to have been a 90- to 180-day exploration of two distinct regions of the red planet has turned into a saga that has become one of science's most compelling and long-lasting adventures (now into its eighth year), enthralling the public and the science communities alike.
Launched the summer of 2003 and landing in January 2004, the solar-powered Mars Exploration Rovers? (MER) Spirit and Opportunity completed their intended basic missions in April 2004. Each continued roving until March 2010, when Spirit, mired in unexpected but scientifically interesting martian sand and pointed in an unfavorable direction to survive the winter dark, gave up the ghost.
Opportunity, on the other hand, remains active, having reached the rim of Endeavour Crater Aug. 9, 2011, knocking at the door of geology different from any it has explored during its first seven-plus years on Mars.
"Opportunity now is in a brand new mission," says Raymond E. Arvidson, PhD, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at WUTL, and MER deputy principal investigator. "In late August, we looked at a rock named Tisdale, with a composition unlike any we've seen before. It has an enormous amount of zinc, bromine, phosphorus, chlorine, and sulfur, all elements that are mobile in the presence of water.
To read the rest of the article, click here.