SUMMARY: On December 11, NASA's Opportunity rover will join its partner Spirit to celebrate a full Martian year on the Red Planet. Both rovers will now have experienced all of the Martian seasons, and now they're nearing the end of the Martian summer. Opportunity is currently exploring exposed bedrock along a route between Endurance and Victoria craters, and recently found rock that seems to be younger than what it discovered inside Endurance crater. These rocks seem to be petrified sand dunes, and show a longer term cycle of wetness and dryness in the region.

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What a fabulous story, and what a fabulous technological triumph. The general public is so inured to this stuff it borders on shameful. It's safe to say the term 'fascinating' sorely understates the frame of mind held by the mission scientists.

Would it be too much of an exaggeration to suggest the the combined rover missions are among the greatest achievements NASA has accomplished?

Personally, I would put them second, with the moon landings being number one.

__________________
All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.~ Carl Sagan ~

Humanity must rise above the Earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only then will we fully understand the world in which we live.~Socrates, 500 B.C. ~

Let every man judge according to his own standards, by what he has himself read, not by what others tell him. ~Albert Einstein~

Hi folks,


I was wondering, cause the blots in the picture are looking green for me, aren't they?

As far as I know, the rovers do have some camera-color-calibration plates (which are looking like a joystick)..... So the color of the picture should be as be seen with the unaided eye.

I am NOT a scifi-guy and I know there is no gras or alike on Mars - but what is it that makes this color???


Cheers,



Didi