It takes Opportunity, the Mars Rover to go into Victoria Crater and in it went. On September 11, 2007 Opportunity got all of its six wheels inside the crater and just to see how the traction was backed right on out. Kind of like dipping your toes into the pool to test the water. Technically they are saying the move was to see how much the wheels slipped. The little image to the left shows the tracks left from the maneuver. Click either image for a larger version.

Since the first test went without much of a problem, and has a way to get out of the crater, yesterday the rover back into the crater and traveled nt about 20 feet inside the crater and will be looking first at a layer of exposed rock.

Going into the crater is a tremendous opportunity for Opportunity to take a look at a place where a meteor or some such body, hit Mars and blasted away the surface layer. Of course there is some erosion in the way of added dust matter from the famous dust storms on the planet, just like the one that just ended. The rover can still examine rocks that would have once been below the surface.

What a fantastic mission the 3 month mission is almost 44 months long, AND next week we should be hearing of another mission from NASA and Discovery (the NASA program). The program has given us such programs as Mars Pathfinder, NEARS landing on the asteroid Eros, the Stardust mission – I can’t wait to hear! Stay tuned.

Image and source: NASA/JPL-Caltech