Tag Archives: Challenger Memorial Station

25 January 2004, 05:05 UTC SCET

"The interior of a crater surrounding the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity at Meridiani Planum on Mars can be seen in this color image from the rover's panoramic camera. This is the darkest landing site ever visited by a spacecraft on Mars. The rim of the crater is approximately 10 meters (32 feet) from the rover. The crater is estimated to be 20 meters (65 feet) in diameter. Scientists are intrigued by the abundance of rock outcrops dispersed throughout the crater, as well as the crater's soil, which appears to be a mixture of coarse gray grains and fine reddish grains. Data taken from the camera's near-infrared, green and blue filters were combined to create this approximate true color picture, taken on the first day of Opportunity's journey. The view is to the west-southwest of the rover."
“The interior of a crater surrounding the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity at Meridiani Planum on Mars can be seen in this color image from the rover’s panoramic camera. This is the darkest landing site ever visited by a spacecraft on Mars. The rim of the crater is approximately 10 meters (32 feet) from the rover. The crater is estimated to be 20 meters (65 feet) in diameter. Scientists are intrigued by the abundance of rock outcrops dispersed throughout the crater, as well as the crater’s soil, which appears to be a mixture of coarse gray grains and fine reddish grains. Data taken from the camera’s near-infrared, green and blue filters were combined to create this approximate true color picture, taken on the first day of Opportunity’s journey. The view is to the west-southwest of the rover.” (NASA Jet propulsion Laboratory)

25 January 2004: Mars Exploration Rover–B, named Opportunity, landed at Meridiani Planum on the surface of Mars at 5:05 a.m., UTC SCET (Spacecraft Event Time) and rolled into a small crater, approximately 22 meters (72 feet) in diameter.

Meridiani Planum is near the center of this image of Mars, photographed from the Mars Orbiter Mission, 28 September 2014, at an altitude of 74,582 kilometers (46,343 miles). (The Bruce Murray Space Image Library)

The crater would later be named Eagle Crater, and the landing site is named Challenger Memorial Station. The site is on the opposite side of the planet from Opportunity‘s twin, MER-A, Spirit.

“This image taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the rover’s now-empty lander, the Challenger Memorial Station, at Meridiani Planum, Mars. The image was acquired on the 24th martian day, or sol, of Opportunity’s mission at approximately 13:00 Local Solar Time. This is a mosaic image consisting of 12 color images acquired with the camera’s red, green and blue filters. The color balance has been set to approximate the colors that a human eye would see.” (NASA/JPL/Cornell)
Artist’s conception of a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. (JPL)

© 2018, Bryan R. Swopes