Months after the death of the Mars rover Spirit, its surviving twin is poised to reach the rim of a vast crater to begin a fresh round of exploration.
Driving commands sent up to Opportunity directed the six-wheel rover to make the final push toward Endeavour crater, a 14-mile-wide depression near the Martian equator that likely could be its final destination.
At its current pace and barring any hiccups, Opportunity should roll up to the crater's edge today. The finish line was a spot along a ridge that the rover team nicknamed "Spirit Point" in honor of Opportunity's lost twin.
The milestone injects a sense of adventure back into a mission that wowed the public with color portraits of the landscape and the unmistakable geologic discoveries of a warm and wetter past.
The University of Arizona has a role in it. Planetary geology professor Alfred McEwen's team is still doing orbital imaging often. The pictures help Opportunity's crew plan the rover's drives and look for both hazards and science sites.
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The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), which has orbited Mars since 2006 aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is run from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory on the UA campus.
The NASA rovers parachuted to opposite sides of Mars in 2004 for what was a planned three-month mission, but both have operated beyond their factory warranty.
Spirit's journey ended in May after NASA ceased trying to contact it. It had been trapped in sand and not heard from for more than a year.
Opportunity has been on a driving spree since 2008 after it crawled out of a much smaller crater and trundled south toward Endeavour, stopping occasionally to sightsee and examine rock outcrops.
Star reporter Becky Pallack contributed to this story.
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