page_title: Endeavour (crater)
section_title: The journey to Endeavour
hierarchical_section_title: Endeavour (crater) / Opportunity / The journey to Endeavour
caption_attribution_description: English: NASA Images - January 22, 2015 High Viewpoint for 11-Year-Old Rover Mission on Mars http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=pia19109 This panorama is the view NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity gained from the top of the "Cape Tribulation" segment of the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover reached this point three weeks before the 11th anniversary of its January 2004 landing on Mars. The component images were taken with Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) during the week after the rover's arrival at the summit on Jan. 6, 2015, the 3,894th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars. This location is the highest elevation Opportunity has reached since departing the Victoria Crater area in 2008 on a three-year, down-slope journey to Endeavour Crater. Endeavour spans about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter, with its interior and rim laid out in this 245-degree panorama centered toward east-northeast. Rover tracks imprinted during the rover's approach to the site appear on the left. The far horizon in the right half of the scene includes portions of the rim of a crater farther south, Iazu Crater. An orbital image showing the regional context is at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13082. The rover climbed about 440 feet (about 135 meters) in elevation from a lower section of the Endeavour rim that it crossed in mid-2013, "Botany Bay," in its drive to the Tribulation summit. It departed the summit on Jan. 17, 2015 (Sol 3902), continuing toward a science destination at "Marathon Valley." At the summit, Opportunity held its robotic arm so that the U.S. flag would be visible in the scene. The flag is printed on the aluminum cable guard of the rover's rock abrasion tool, which is used for grinding away weathered rock surfaces to expose fresh interior material for examination. The flag is intended as a memorial to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. The aluminum used for the cable guard was recovered from the site of the twin towers in the weeks following the attacks. Workers at Honeybee Robotics in lower Manhattan, less than a mile from the World Trade Center, were making the rock abrasion tool for Opportunity and NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, in September 2001. This version of the image is presented in approximate true color by combing exposures taken through three of the Pancam's color filters, centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The left edge is toward west-northwest and the right edge is southward. Opportunity landed on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time (evening of Jan. 24, 2004, PST). JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about Spirit and Opportunity, visit http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov. Photojournal Note: Also available is the full resolution TIFF file PIA19109_full.tif. This file may be too large to view from a browser; it can be downloaded onto your desktop by right-clicking on the previous link and viewed with image viewing software.
context_page_description: Endeavour is an impact crater located in the Meridiani Planum extraterrestrial plain within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle region of the planet Mars. Endeavour is about 22 kilometers in diameter. Using Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data, phyllosilicate-bearing outcrops have been detected along its rim. These minerals may have formed under wet conditions in a low-acidic environment during the early history of Mars. There are raised rim segments to the north, east, and southwest. The rim has become worn, rounded and degraded, with infilling of plains material in a manner similar to the Victoria crater.
  When compared to the surrounding plains, the crater floor shows an enhanced spectral signature of basalt and hematite. The interior contains two groups of dune fields. Images taken since 2008 show evidence of changes in some of the associated formations, which may be evidence of active erosion by the martian wind over a period of two to three years. The plains surrounding the rim show evidence of polyhydrated sulfate.
context_section_description: In August 2008, Mars Exploration Rover-B Opportunity set to reach Endeavour and began a journey towards it. Some craters that were previously explored by Opportunity include the crater Victoria which is 750 meters (0.47 miles) in diameter, Endurance crater which is 130 meters (0.08 miles) in diameter, and the crater Eagle which is 22 meters (0.01 miles) in diameter.
  On March 7, 2009 (sol 1,820), Opportunity first imaged the rim of Endeavour after driving about 3.2 kilometers (2.0 mi) since it left Victoria in August 2008. Opportunity also imaged the crater Iazu, which is about 38 kilometers (24 mi) away and about 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) in diameter. At that time, Opportunity was 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) from Endeavour as the Martian crow flies, but to avoid hazards, it was estimated that it would take about 30% more driving distance than that to reach Endeavour. Based on the amount of time it had taken to drive from Victoria, it was estimated that this journey would take over one Martian year (23 months). On May 5, 2010, to avoid hazardous dune fields along the direct path between Victoria and Endeavour, the charted route between the two craters was extended to an estimated 19 kilometers.
  On September 8, 2010, it was announced that Opportunity had reached the halfway point of the 19-kilometer journey between Victoria and Endeavour. By June 28, 2011, Opportunity was just under 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from landfall at the rim of Endeavour.
  On August 4, 2011, Opportunity was only 120 metres (390 ft) from the rim of Endeavour, and on August 9, 2011 Opportunity arrived at the west rim near Spirit Point to study outcrops never seen before.
  When it arrived it explored the northwest outcrops at Cape York (Mars) of the crater before heading south to Solander Point and the Western rim.
caption: MER-B eventually reached Cape Tribulation, and took a panorama from its top: Opportunity's view from Cape Tribulation on the rim of Endeavour, January 22, 2015.
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