Opportunity rover begins exploring huge crater Posted: 11 August
2011 NASA's Opportunity rover has arrived at Endeavour crater, a
sweeping impact site fraught with clay minerals that could
signal a wetter, more habitable environment existed on ancient
Mars, the space agency announced Wednesday. "Our arrival at this
destination is a reminder that these rovers have continued far
beyond the original three-month mission," said John Callas,
Opportunity's project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, Calif. Opportunity confirmed its location along
Endeavour's rim Tuesday. Officials named the site Spirit Point
after Opportunity's sister rover, which stopped communicating
with Earth in March 2010. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a
sharp-eyed satellite circling more than 150 miles above the
planet, spotted signs of clay minerals around the crater's rim
and compelled rover managers to order Opportunity to
investigate. The clay minerals likely formed in ancient watery
environments that may have been