The panoramic camera on NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has caught a first glimpse on the horizon of the uplifted rim of the big crater that has been Opportunity’s long-term destination for six months.
Opportunity’s twin, Spirit, also has a challenging destination, and last week switched to a different route for making progress to it.
Endeavour Crater, 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter, is still 7 miles (12 kilometers) away from Opportunity as the crow flies, and at least 30 percent farther away on routes mapped for evading hazards on the plain.
“We can now see our landfall on the horizon. It’s far away, but we can anticipate seeing it gradually look larger and larger as we get closer to Endeavour,” said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, and the principal investigator for the rovers’ science instruments. “We had a similar experience during the early months of the mission watching the Columbia Hills get bigger in the images from Spirit as Spirit drove toward them.”
Opportunity has already driven about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) since it climbed out of Victoria Crater last August after two years of studying Victoria, which is less than one-twentieth the size of Endeavour.