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› Press release Panelists:

Dave Lavery, program executive, Mars Exploration Rovers, NASA Headquarters, Washington
John Callas, project manager, Mars Exploration Rovers, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Ray Arvidson, deputy principal investigator, Mars Exploration Rovers, Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
Steve Squyres, principal investigator, Mars Exploration Rovers, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

This media teleconference will discuss the progress of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity at the destination the rover reached this month after years of driving: Endeavour crater.

Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004 and continued to work for years in bonus mission extensions. Spirit finished communicating in 2010 after six years of operation. Opportunity, still very active, reached the rim of Endeavour crater on Aug. 9, 2011. The arrival gives the rover access to geology different from any it explored by Opportunity in its first 90 months on Mars.

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DAVE LAVERY

Dave Lavery, of NASA Headquarters, Washington, has been the program executive for the Mars Exploration Rovers since before the launch of Spirit and Opportunity in 2003. He is also the program executive for NASA's next-generation Mars rover program, the Mars Science Laboratory.

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JOHN CALLAS

John Callas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been project manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project since March 2006. Previously, as science manager and then deputy project manager, he had helped lead the rover project since 2000.

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Callas 1 - Long Trek to Endeavour


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The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a point approaching the rim of Endeavour crater. The map traces the route through the 2,670th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars (July 29, 2011). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/NMMNHS

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RAY ARVIDSON

Ray Arvidson is James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University, St. Louis. He is deputy principal investigator for the science payload on NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers.

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Arvidson 1 - Area of Arrival at Endeavour


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This image taken from orbit shows the path of the path driven by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in the weeks around the rover's arrival at the rim of Endeavour crater. The sol number (number of Martian days since the rover landed on Mars) are indicated along the route. Sol 2674 corresponds to Aug. 2, 2011; Sol 2688 corresponds to Aug. 16, 2011. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

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Arvidson 2 - View Across at 'Botany Bay'


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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera during the rover's 2,678th Martian day, or sol, (Aug. 6, 2011) to record the image frames combined into this mosaic view centered toward the southeast. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Arvidson 3 - Bright Veins


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Bright veins cutting across outcrop in a section of Endeavour crater's rim called "Botany Bay" are visible in the foreground and middle distance of this view assembled from images taken by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the rover's 2,681st Martian day, or sol, of working on Mars (Aug. 9, 2011). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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STEVE SQUYRES

Steve Squyres is Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. and the principal investigator for the science payload on NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

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Steve Squyres 1 - Rock Called Tisdale 2


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This rock, informally named "Tisdale 2," was the first rock the NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity examined in detail on the rim of Endeavour crater. It has textures and composition unlike any rock the rover examined during its first 90 months on Mars. Its characteristics are consistent with the rock being a breccia -- a type of rock fusing together broken fragments of older rocks. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

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Steve Squyres 2 - Inspection Targets on Tisdale 2


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This image overlays "thumbnail" images taken by the Mars rover Opportunity's microscopic imager onto a false-color image from the rover's panoramic camera. The combination shows locations of the microscopic imager's observations on a rock informally named "Tisdale 2." Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU/USGS/JHUAPL

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Steve Squyres 3 - Close-up of Target on Tisdale 2


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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its microscopic imager to record this close-up view of texture on part of a rock informally named "Tisdale 2" on the western rim of Endeavour crater. The image was taken during the 2,694th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars (Aug. 22, 2011). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/USGS

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Steve Squyres 4 - Comparisons of Composition


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This graphic presents information gained by examining part of the Martian rock called "Tisdale 2" with the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer on Mars rover Opportunity and comparing the composition measured there with compositions of other targets examined by Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Max Planck Institute/University of Guelph

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