NASA Mars Rover Arrives at New Site on Martian Surface

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Priscilla Vega/Guy Webster 818-354-1357/818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov/guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

News release: 2011-248 Aug. 10, 2011

NASA Mars Rover Arrives at New Site on Martian Surface

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-248&cid=release_2011-248

PASADENA, Calif. – After a journey of almost three years, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover
Opportunity has reached the Red Planet's Endeavour crater to study rocks never seen before.

On Aug. 9, the golf cart-sized rover relayed its arrival at a location named Spirit Point on the crater's
rim. Opportunity drove approximately 13 miles (21 kilometers) since climbing out of the Victoria
crater.

"NASA is continuing to write remarkable chapters in our nation's story of exploration with
discoveries on Mars and trips to an array of challenging new destinations," NASA Administrator
Charles Bolden said. "Opportunity's findings and data from the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory
will play a key role in making possible future human missions to Mars and other places where
humans have not yet been."

Endeavour crater, which is more than 25 times wider than Victoria crater, is 14 miles (22 kilometers)
in diameter. At Endeavour, scientists expect to see much older rocks and terrains than those examined
by Opportunity during its first seven years on Mars. Endeavour became a tantalizing destination after
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected clay minerals that may have formed in an early
warmer and wetter period.

"We're soon going to get the opportunity to sample a rock type the rovers haven't seen yet," said
Matthew Golombek, Mars Exploration Rover science team member, at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "Clay minerals form in wet conditions so we may learn about a
potentially habitable environment that appears to have been very different from those responsible for
the rocks comprising the plains."

The name Spirit Point informally commemorates Opportunity's twin rover, which stopped
communicating in March 2010. Spirit's mission officially concluded in May.

"Our arrival at this destination is a reminder that these rovers have continued far beyond the original
three-month mission," said John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover project manager at JPL.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which launched Aug. 12, 2005, is searching for evidence that
water persisted on the Martian surface for a long period of time. Other Mars missions have shown
water flowed across the surface in the planet's history, but scientists have not determined if water
remained long enough to provide a habitat for life.

NASA launched the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity in the summer of 2003. Both completed their
three-month prime missions in April 2004 and continued years of extended operations. They made
important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for
supporting microbial life.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration
Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Imagery taken after Opportunity arrived at Endeavour will be released on NASA's website and
NASA Television as soon as available on Wednesday. For more information about the rover and a
color image as it approached the crater, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov .

For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=inKPITMqHdLFLWI&s=lvL4JaPRJhLQK9NXIvF&m=isIWL5OJJiJSIbJ

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=lqIVI2OCJgJMJ6L&s=lvL4JaPRJhLQK9NXIvF&m=isIWL5OJJiJSIbJ