Opportunity Roving

NASA's rover Opportunity has entered Victoria crater and is poised to begin studying a layer of bright rock in the crater wall that scientists think may represent the surface of Mars before the body that created Victoria came calling. That is precisely the kind of science NASA had hoped to do with the rovers.

Opportunity's handlers are proceeding cautiously, however. Moving down the crater wall means the rover will be tilted at about 25 degrees, and NASA wants to make sure it will not get stuck or tip over before moving forward. After all, if Opportunity did tip over, no one would be along to set it back on its six wheels for another thirty years.